Love and Acceptence
by 2pinkstar and 7blackberry
Summary: Gabriella Montez is an ADD girl who isn't the smartest tool in the toolbox and for that she's being verbally abused. Watch her go through all the hurt, betrayal and maybe even love. TROYELLA. This story is an honer of bullying prevention month. REVIEW!
1. Love and acceptence

**LOVE AND ACCEPTENCE.**

**A/N Helloooo Fanfictioners out there. I know what your all thinking. I want to apolgize for not being able to update my stories Stranger 2:Pain is not for gain and The secret lives of the american teenagers. I know i should i be updating them but this story i really and needed to get it out of my way. I thought publishing the story would be suitable for October since the month is bullying prevention month. I just wanted to let you know about verbal abuse. Words can hurt. Don't judge before you get to know them. With that in mind, i created a story about a girl who has ADD (attention defecit disocrder) and i wanted to let you her point of view of what's it like of having no friends, being misjudged. So yeah**. **I will be incooperating many poems into the story that i wrote myself. I included many experinces that i experinced in the story so you could say that this is my way of writing my own life story. So sit back and read and enjoy. Once your done, click on the purple button and review...you know you want too. (:**

**Happy Birthday Samanta1024. I wish you a very happy birthday. I love you(:**

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_Flashback_

_13 year old Gabriella Montez stepped out of her house on a cloudy Wensday morning. She walked over to her and greeted her best friend since the second grade. Betsy Macadams. Her friend currently is a 6th grader at East Middle School. Betsy is the kind of girl who's obsessed with boys. She days about them everyday in school and when she dates, she falls in love way too fast. But Gabriella loved her for who she is even if she was a little too much at times._

_Gabriella encaged into a conversation with her best friend. She listened to her friend drone on and on about the latest drama. But suddenly, she felt being stared at so she looked towards at a blue house and on the front porch there stood a petite, brown eyed girl who looked to be three or four inches taller than her. The girl was her classmate since fifth grade named Vanessa Verea. On the first day of fifth grade, the girl felt sorry for because she didn't have any friends and tried to befriend her due to her shyness. She envied how beautiful and how fashionable her clothes was. She was she could wear the fashionable clothes but being 4'6 she could hardly wear a lot of the clothes in the teen stores. Gabriella examined Vanessa's outfit who wore a cute white hoodie and white sweatpants._

_Her attention fixed back on her friend and continued to listen but something inside made her look back so she looked back at the blue house and saw her staring at the bus stop so she stared back wondering why she was staring and then turned back to her friend. Once again, she began to listen then her attention fixed back on the blue house to check if she was staring back. Finally, the girl was gone. The bus came down to a halt and the bus driver opened the doors to let the students in for another boring 7 hour school day._

_The next day, she sat in her art class coloring her horrible abstract art. She was never good at art so she was never a fan of the school subject. Thank goodness, she was heading to High School next year so she was able to choose one of the electives and no way was she able to choose art._

_Vanessa sat beside Gabriella and colored and talked to her friends. She giggled and smiled like a schoolgirl and announced. "I think Gabriella's lesbian"_

_One of her classmates Christian Cortez inquired. "Why would you think that?"_

_"Because she's always staring at me. Its getting really annoying. Yesterday morning, I looked outside to see if any kids were at the bus stop and I caught her staring and kept looking back to her friend and then she kept looking back at me."_

_Gabriella's heart sank, she felt embarrassed. She didn't mean to stare at her, she felt being stared so she kept looking to see if she's staring back at her. Plus she always envied how gorgeous she was and how fashionable her clothes were. How was she gonna survive the next three weeks of middle school with that rumor spreading around._

_"Wow," Christian" hesitated thinking for a moment. "Do you want me to spread the word that Gabriella's a lesbian"_

_Vanessa chuckled slightly. "That's bogus but sure, I don't really care._

_End flashback_

"Gabriella, Gabriella, Gabriella" A voice taunted her then someone snapped her fingers in front of her eyes snapping her back to reality

"Gabriella, can you please solve the problem on the board for us?" Mr. K questioned.

Gabriella just sat there and looked at her desk. She was too nervous to go up there. She didn't want to look like a retard since she didn't know what problem the teacher wanted her to due since she was too busy daydreaming about a horrible flashback that happened in the 8th grade. That was in 8th grade. Now everybody thought she was a lesbian. What Vanessa did was so a second grader's move. It bothered her to know that people didn't get to know her without judging. But it was in the past and there's no way she could redo it.

"Gabriella, go up there or I'm calling your parents" The teacher instructed.

She ignored the teacher's orders and continued to look back at her desk.

"Come with me, I'm calling your parents" The teacher ordered. Mr. C and Gabriella walked out of the classroom and into a small office and sat down and picked up the phone.

"What's your number?"

She sighed heavily knowing she was going to get in so much trouble. "16156885771"

Mr. C dialed the number and waited for someone to pick up. "Hello, This is Mr. Cawaskii and this is your daughter's algebra teacher. I'm just wondering why Gabriella's not participating when she's asked to, she won't ask for the help, she's failing and I just don't want to do with her anymore."

Mr. Cawaski listened for a moment. "Yeah, I know, do you wanna go talk to her?"

He listened for a moment before giving her the phone. "Hello" She answered.

"Gabriella, your not participating, you won't ask for help and your failing, the teacher doesn't know what to do anymore so you have to go to tutoring after school" Her dad told her.

"But Dad, I don't want to" She protested.

"No, buts"

"Okay, fine, bye" She mumbled darkly, she hung up and gave the teacher the phone who put it back down.

"You know that's the longest I heard you talked" Mr. Cawaskii said.

Gabriella gave a shy small smile and suddenly the bell rang. "You can go to your next class"

She went down back to her classroom and picked up her stuff before proceeding to her next class.

Before she knew it school was over, so she walked straight to her bus and 30 minutes later, the bus came to a halt at her stop. She sighed in relief that school was officially done. She unbuckled her seatbelt and stood up from her seat.

Gabriella stepped off the bus and prepared for battle that was about to begin in the Montez household. She walked over to her front porch, she unlocked the door and stepped inside her home. She removed her shoes and put her bag down.

She walked over to the pantry and slid it open and opted for a bag of yummy goldfish crackers, she headed over to the couch and picked up the remote and flicked on the TV. She snacked and watched TV.

20 minutes later, she heard the door open and footsteps inside the house. She silently groaned that meant her dad's home.

Gabriella's dad stepped into the living room and stared at her and questioned "Did you do your homework?"

"I don't have any homework"

"Honey, your teacher called and he told me he how frustrated he was that you didn't participate"

"I'm too shy" She whined.

"Honey, there's a time that you have to get over it," He replied. "So why not start now?"

Gabriella sighed before replying. "But all the kids are calling me retarded. Its not fair, they hadn't had one conversation with me and yet they continue to judge me. Its because of one incident at school, this girl told everyone that I don't know my multiplication, subtraction and addition. I do know some of it, I'm not that dumb. I'm not perfect. Math wasn't my best subject anyway. People don't want me to be friends with them either because of it"

Gabriella had a attention Deficit Discorder, she didn't have any dyslexia, she was tested many time and the reports show that she was not dyslexic. So her discorder didn't help either.

"Honey, no one's perfect. You should go memorize and show them your not retarded"

"I know" Gabriella sighed before replying."But still, it hurts"

She gave a kiss on her cheek and standing up and taking her snack with her. "I'll be in my room"

"Okay"

Gabriella walked upstairs and opened her door to her bedroom door and walked in and closed the door.

Her room was painted purple, she had queen bed, a desk with a laptop, pictures of her and her friends were plastered on the wall. She walked over to her desk and logged on to Facebook. When she signed on, she noticed she had a friend request. Her heart fluttered when she saw the name Troy Bolton.

Troy Bolton was the hottest guy in school, he was the captain in the basketball team. Gabriella adored his looks. She wished she got to know him and she wished he would fall in love with her.

She went over to his profile and scanned through and looked at his pictures before signing off. She picked up her notebook and went over to her bed and flipped the notebook open and began to write a poem. She loved writing. She loved writing stories ever since she became a member in the . in the 7th grade. Lately, she was getting into writing poems.

As soon as she was done, she looked at it and begin to read aloud.

_Looking for a hand to hold._

_Wanting to know who's real_

_Recovering from all the pain_

_There's so much madness that can't be handled_

_The taunting whispered_

_Are a child's cry for love and acceptance_

_Writing a damn poem_

_In search for comfort_

_Looking for answers as to why it had to happem_

_Are a child's cry for love and acceptance._

She sighed and went back down thought about the last few months. Her cousin Anna had betrayed. She talked trash about her and thought she was stupid. She once overheard her cousin whining about her to her mother during a vacation. She could still remember it clearly. It was too painful. They used so much close but then she distanced herself last year during freshmen year. Along with her other friends, they thought she was slow and dumb. All her friends from her parties were her rock that kept her going but since they talked bad about her she didn't know what to do anymore. At school, it didn't help either.

She had only two friends, Diana and Jasmin. Jasmin was quiet like her. She had moved away a month ago so now she only had Diana. She was a little doubtful of her friendship with her. Sometimes, she'd leave her in the hallways with her boyfriend, she always felt like a third wheel. She said that she was dumb and stuff.

She didn't know what to do anymore. She hated her life. She didn't have any true friends & people made fun of her. Her teachers all thought she was retarded. You could say she was verbally abused.

Sucide wasn't the answer and it wasn't a healthy one too.

She had thought about it previously and pondered the what ifs. If people would miss her but she knew all to well that she wouldn't be able to commit sucide.

She wished she'd lived in a place where she could have love and acceptance.

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**A/N So what choo think about my new story?. Love or hate, either tell me your opinon. I know this chapter is boring BUT TRUST ME ON THIS!. This story will get better. This story is a Troyella and don't worry the HSM gang WILL be in the story and WILL play a important role in the story as well. **

**REVIEW!**


	2. Another lonely day

**Love & Acceptence**

**A/N I am TRULY sorry for not updating this story. I hadn't internet for months since July to be exact. But last Saturday, my brother magically fixed it. Yay!. Now I can get back to my love for writing stories. Yippie yi yay. Anyway I hope you enjoy.**

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Gabriella woke up to the sound of her alarm clock ringing. She groaned & pressed the snooze button before pulling the covers off. Gabriella hated waking up early on school days. That was most thing she hated about going to school. Waking up at 5am was truly a big pain in the ass. She walked out of her room and into the bathroom to get ready for another lonely day. She pulled the shower curtains open and stepped inside the shower stall. Gabriella turned on the water. The steaming hot water felt really good as the water poured on her. 20 minutes later, she got out of the shower stall, dripping wet. Gabriella grabbed the towel & wrapped the towel around her. She blow dried her hair and brushed. She looked at her ugly reflection in the mirror. Her hair was puffy and, she looked pale, her lips were cracked and dried. She was ugly. She hated the way she looked. She wished she was prettier like most girls in her school. Gabriella turned away from her reflection painfully before forcing herself out of the bathroom. She walked into her room and opened the closet and scanned through her closet before she opted a white tank top, a black cardigan and skinny ripped jeans and putting on white sketchers shoes. She picked up a scrunchie and put her hair into a updo style. Gabriella picked up her black purse before dragging her feet downstairs to eat breakfast. Once she was finished, she gave a goodbye to her parents before finally heading out. It was fairly warm on a Friday morning. Five minutes later, the sound of an engine came towards their street before finally coming to a halt. The yellow doors swung open before the kids proceeded to go in. Gabriella chose a empty seat and placed herself in. She turned on her ipod touch and blasted her latest favorite song. Fucking perfect by Pink.

_Pretty pretty please, don't you ever ever feel_

_Like you're less than f*ckin' perfect_

_Pretty pretty please, if you ever ever feel like you're nothing. Your fucking perfect to me_

_She absolutely loved the song. She related to it. It was like as if Pink read her mind._

20 minutes later, the bus came to a halt before the students filed out of the bus. She looked at the wonderful view in front of her. There was the white marble water fountain that stood out in the middle of school yard. Students were in groups standing, chilling before the bell had rung. People sat on the water fountain either talking, kissing or making out. Some students were walking into the school. She envied how they all had friends in their perfect lives. But she knew that their lives weren't perfect. She knew that there must be something going on in their lives. But she envied how everybody was friends with everybody. She wanted to be just like them, intectually wise. If she could turn back time to prevent from everyone knowing about her not being able to memorize her multiplication, subtraction, addition tables. She would. Gabriella wished how everyone would judge on her strengths not weakness. Not everyone was perfect. So why couldn't people accept the concept of individuality?.

She walked into her school and into the crazy crowded hallway. As she passed by, she heard something. "Oh, my god. She's so short. She's so tiny" and another voice said. "Leave her alone. Don't make fun of her"

"Yeah, so I was just saying how short she was"

Gabriella rolled her eyes and thought to herself. Bitch, I hope you go burn in hell.

Being a 4'6 girl wasn't fun. People made fun of her all the time for being short. It was absolutely sickening.

She arrived to her locker, unlocking then opening it. Gabriella put her books inside then pulled out some notebooks and put in her bag. She glanced at the school's clock noticing she had one minute left before the bell rang.

"Shit" She cursed, slamming the locker door. Gabriella power walked, worrying over if would give her a detention. She never had a dentetion in her life and she wasn't planning on getting one either. Mrs. Darbus was a weird overly obsessed theatre old woman. She had a strict policy on cell phones and tardies.

She was too busy obsessing weather or not if she was getting that she didn't notice the person in front of her.

Bam. Gabriella snapped back into reality as she recognized a pair of blue eyes. It was Troy Bolton, the captain of the basketball team. He was the most popular kid in school and definitely the hottest. Gabriella had a slight crush on him. Troy seemed nice and charming. But what really turned her on was that once when she was working on a science project in class. Gabriella overheard someone making fun of her for being short and Troy had defended her.

Today, Troy was wearing a red shirt, jeans & converse. His hair in the front slicked back. (A/N His hairstyle was Zac's hairstyle before he got a buzz cut). He looked absolutely stunning.

"I'm s-sorry" Gabriella stammered quietly getting nervous.

"No, im sorry, I should have been looking where I was going" Troy apologized.

Gabriella gave a small smile before walking away. She could feel the burn of his stares right through her. With that thought in her mind, she blushed deep red as she walked into her homeroom.

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After homeroom, she entered her parenting classroom and before the bell had rung, she sat herself down. A short black woman named Mrs. Bullock walked over to her. "Where is your project?"

She hated aides. They were annoying and frustrating to deal with. She hated it when they came to her and helped when she hadn't even asked for help. The school thought she needed aides. As if she was one of those slow people who needed help in everything. But of course, she was not. She knew it and she tried to prove it. But every time she tried. Her case manager had lectured her how it was important that the aides should help her for the sake of her grades and how it was important that the aides should read the tests to her and be pulled out. She hated being pulled out and being read to. She couldn't concentrate while being read to. She was perfectly capable of reading the test by herself.

She rolled her eyes and slightly scowled as she trashed around looking for her project and gave it.

"I'm going to have to take a look it at it" She announced.

Gabriella felt lava boiling up inside her. She hated it when aides inspected her work making sure it was perfect. Why couldn't she get the grade she deserved?. She let out a scowl.

"Don't give me that look!"

Gabriella nodded.

"That's it," Mrs. Bullock said wondering why Gabriella was making rude gestures. "Come with me"

She followed her into the front of the classroom and crossed her arms as she stood.

"Gabriella?. Why are you acting like this?. Your such a beautiful lady. You shouldn't act like this. I know you talk to Diana so I know you can talk" Mrs. Bullock spoke.

Gabriella didn't say a word before Mrs. Bullock replied. "Go back to your seat"

Gabriella took once glance at the class and saw everyone staring at her. Her cheeks reddened with embarrassment. Now everyone had the wrong impression of her that she had an attitude. But she couldn't help it. Her anger and annoyance took over and usually when that happens. It wasn't pretty. Gabriella sighed before putting her head down. Seconds later, Mrs. Bullock snapped at her. "Put your head up"

Gabriella slumped in her seat, putting her hands to her face while her elbow rested on the desk.

"No, no, no. Pull your hands away from your face and sit straight" Gabriella cursed silently angrily as she did what she was told. She looked to her right and saw a student sleeping snoring quietly. It was totally unfair. The student was sleeping and Mrs. Bullock wasn't going to give the student a hard time about it.

It was totally unjustified.

Later that day, she headed to her favorite part of the school day. Lunch. She entered the cafeteria and grabbed a bowl of yummy Rotini and soda. She sat herself down in a empty lunch table and chewed silently and glanced at the students eating lunch with their friends gossiping, laughing and whatnot in jealously. She felt lonely and needed a friend. She wished Diana had the same lunch period. It would make school a bit better. Gabriella let out a sigh before she continued to devour into her delicious bowl of Rotini.

After lunch, she headed into the Special Education headquarters. She hated Resource. She hated having an aid who made sure she had done her work. It was complete torture.

"So Gabriella. Do you have any work today?" Mr. Early questioned.

Gabriella nodded and showed her Algebra homework.

"Ahh, substitute equations" Mr. Early spoke. "Here's what you do, you distribute the top equation with the bottom equation"

Gabriella did as what she told.

"Good," Mr. Early exclaimed. "Now you combine like terms"

Gabriella added the two Y's and created a third equation before she added the second and third number in the equation. She divided the answer and the X before getting the answer.

"That's great. Now, we have to reduce it"

Gabriella struggled and did it with help. She kept getting the answer wrong three times as she redid the problem

"Ugh, does she have a brain?" The teacher whispered to himself.

Another aid who was sitting by and listened as the aid who was helping her step by step and heard him say what's 6 times 3?. She didn't reply and used her calculator.

The other aid whispered to the case manager. "She's mentally challenged!"

Gabriella felt humiliated. It was as if a thousand bricks fell on her. She felt herself wanting to cry but she held it in. As soon as resource was done. She had never been so glad that the class was done.

She packed her things and headed home, heading straight to her room. She grabbed her notebook and scribbled down her feelings. An hour later, she looked at her finished work and read it aloud to make sure it sounded good.

_Another lonely day_

_The dark clouds passing by_

_Wishing I could be like the rest_

_Wishing I could get another chance_

_Life could be so unkind_

_Alotta things on my mind_

_Needing to take it out_

_Wanting to shout_

_Tired of being outside looking_

_Being jealous of all the rest_

_Everything is so messed_

_Keeping me stressed_

_Don't wanna be stereotyped_

_Oh, its another lonely day_

_Crying myself to sleep_

_Hearing all the taunting_

_Wanting it all to stop_

_Being misunderstood_

_Oh, its another lonely day_

_The dark clouds passing me by_

_Wanting to cry_

_Wondering why_

_Don't need it twice_

_Please just be nice_

_Your heart is cold as ice_

_Wanting to defend_

_Wanting to scream_

_Tired of being outside looking in_

_Being jealous of all the rest_

_Everything is so messed_

_keeping me stressed_

_Don't wanna be stereotyped_

_Oh, its another lonely day_

_Crying myself to sleep at night_

_Hearing all the taunting_

_Wanting it all to stop_

_Being misunderstood_

_Oh, its another lonely day_

_Somedays I try to hold it in_

_Somedays I let it out_

_I don't know I could face all this alone_

_Tired of being outside looking in_

_Being jealous of all the rest_

_Everything is so messed_

_Keeping me stressed_

_Don't wanna be steroyped_

_Oh, its another lonely day_

_Crying myself to sleep at night_

_Hearing all the taunting_

_Wanting it all to stop_

_Being misunderstood_

_Oh, its another lonely day_

She finished reading it and hated it, thinking it was crappy. She ripped piece of paper and crumbled it with her tiny hands and threw it to the floor.

She jumped out of bed, threw open the door and walked towards the bathroom. She opened the door and walked into the bathroom, slamming it shut. She locked before she walked over to the mirror and stared at her reflection.

She thought to herself. _Im so worthless, I can't do anything right, Im so ugly. Nobody would date a worthless cunt like me. I'm retarded. I'm slow. Im fucking short. I have no horrible friends. I hate my stupid life._

The thoughts were stuck in her mind. She felt the tears stream down in her eyes. Maybe if she died. Things would be so much better without her. Nobody would have to deal with her stupidness.

The aid's voice echoed in her mind. "She's mentally challenged.

Gabriella's heart wrenched as another voice echoed in her mind. "She's so short"

Gabriella opened the cabinet and pulled out a silver shiny object that appeared to be a knife as her cousins voice echoed in her mind. "She thinks that Andy, Leslie and Vanessa are her friends. But they aren't. She's stupid. She's so slow. They all feel sorry for her and pretend to be her friends. Im sick and tired of her. I HATE her!"

Gabriella sobbed as she set the knife on her pale cold skin. She cried and sank to the floor. She was scared of cutting herself. She thought she was a scaredy cat. She always kept a spare knife in her cabinet in case she actually wanted to do it. But every time she tried, she chickened out.

She put the knife back into the cabinet and laid on the floor, crying her heart out. She hated her stupid life. She wanted to die. She was sick and tired of being, lonely, friendless and retarded. She couldn't deal with another lonely day.

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**A/N Well, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Let me know about my writing, the characters basically your opinions about the story and my writing. Sorry, if it was boring. I just wanted you to introduce what Gabriella's life is like. So yeah. The story WILL kept more interesting, the hsm gang WILL appear in the next couple of chapters and there WILL be a lot of TROYELLA soon. But you have to stick with me and wait and see how it all will play out for Gabriella. Also about the Algebra part. I'm sorry. The equation that Gabriella is working on is what I'm working on in the class and I forgot what the name it is. I'm struggling with it. So BARE with me!.**

**Everyone please stop judging **

**An estimated 2 out of 3 teens are verbally or physically harassed or assaulted every year.****The most common reason cited for being harassed is a student's appearance or body size. 2 out of 5 teens feel that they are bullied because of the way that they look.****One-third of teens are harassed because they are or are perceived to be lesbian, gay, or bisexual.****1 in 4 teachers see nothing wrong with bullying and will only intervene 4% percent of the time.****A victim of bullying is twice as likely to take his or her own life compared to someone who is not a victim.****64% of American school principals say that student who is a racial minority would feel safe at their school.****Physical bullying peak in middle school and declines in high school. Verbal abuse rates remain constant from elementary to high school.****Researchers feel that bullying should not be treated as part of growing up (with the attitude "kids will be kids").****41% of principals say they have programs designed to create a safe environment for LGBT students, but only 1/3 of principals say that LGBT students would feel safe at their school.****57% of students who experience harassment in school never report the incident to the school. 10% of those who do not report stay quiet because they do not believe that teachers or staff can do anything.****Schools with easily understood rules of conduct, smaller class sizes and fair discipline practices report less violence than those without such features.**

**. Be a friend. Don't be a hater. Be a lover. There are a lot of quiet kids and you have no idea how their feeling so be a friend. Also, please don't call anyone retarded or dumb. Because chances are they have a learning disability like me. Slow, dumb, weird, annoying and whatnot we're all unique. So in honor of Bullying prevention month which was last October. I created this story to give you some insight so think about it before you do something and gossip. So many kids are bullied and are verbally abused. It has to be stopped right now!. So help do that!. Go to to find out more information and learn how you can help to solve these problems**

**Thank you**

**PS. Now that I've wrote such a long chapter minus the facts that I copied and pasted. Its time for me to devour Cotton Candy Ice Cream. Hehe.**


	3. Feirce

**Love and Acceptance **

**A/N I AM so sorry that I hadn't updated in like two months. Most of you probably got forgot this story already but its okay. But those of you who haven't well thank you, I love you. With that being said…without further ado….chapter 3. As soon as your done reading the chapter. Click the purple button and tell me what you think. (:**

**PS. I'm going to change the names of a few characters for a personal reason. Gabriella's cousin's name in the story is Anna which is going to be changed to Kate. Gabriella's two best friends in school who is currently named Diana and Jazmin will be changed to Miranda and Leslie.**

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Gabriella laid in her bed later that night in deep thought. A few minutes later, her phone buzzed interrupting her thoughts.

She sighed and reached for her phone that was placed in her bedside table. She looked at the screen and saw that it was her cousin Anna. What could she possibly what now?. She pressed the button and the text message appeared on the screen.

_Anna: Hey what up?_

_Gabriella: Nothing much you?_

_Anna: Just laying in my bed_

_Gabriella: Same_

_Anna: Hey do you wanna go the movies with me and my friends tommrow?_

_Gabriella: Ummm….sure. Why not?_

_Anna: Okay. Great!. Meet me at movie theatre at 3:00 _

_Gabriella: KK. Well gtg. I have to go to bedd. Luv ya_

_Anna: KK. Luv ya to!_

Gabriella let out a deep sigh as she turned off her phone and laid down, pulling up the comforters to her neck and snuggled in it.

She was so nervous to be with her cousins' friends. She knew that her cousin would tell how dumb she is and they would get the wrong impression of her. Why did things have to be so complicated. Why couldn't she not be lazy and memorize her multiplication, subtraction, addition and division. Why couldn't she not be slow. Why does life have to be so damn hard?.

Gabriella wished for a miracle before finally falling asleep.

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Early, the next morning. She got up, brushed her teeth, showered and changed into a white t-shirt, gray sweatpants and pulled her hair into a updo before finally heading downstairs to eat her first meal of the day.

"Good Morning Gabi" Her father greeted with a warm smile.

"Morning," Gabriella mumbled as she sat down and reached for a piece of bacon and shoving the whole in her mouth.

"En is mom woming ome?" Gabriella questioned as she chewed the salty piece of food.

"At 9. You know she always comes home from work at 9," Her father responded.

"Oh, okay. Um can I got to the movies with Kate"

"Okay, sure but what time are you going?"

"At 2:30 but the movie starts at 3:00"

"Okay. Its nice to see you go out and socialize." Mr. Montez formed a smile. "Here's 20 bucks.

Mr. Montez stood up from his seat and placed his plate and cup in the kitchen sick before walking over to his daughter and placing a kiss on her forehead. "I have to go to work. I love you. Be safe and have fun, alright?"

"Alright dad, bye love you" Gabriella responded.

Mr. Montez gave her a smile before leaving the house. As soon as she heard the car engine start and heard her father pull out the driveway. She was finally home alone.

Hours later, Gabriella was ready for the movies. She changed into a black tank top and white sweatshirt and gray sweatpants. She put on some glowing face lotion, mascara and foundation. She removed the hair scrunchie letting her curls fall down past her shoulder.

She heard the doorbell ring and Gabriella bounced down the stairs and unlocked the door to see her cousin on her front porch.

"Hey Gabriella," She greeted.

Gabriella faked a welcoming smile, replying. "Hold on. Lemme just get my stuff"

"Alrighty, I'll just meet you in the car" Kate told her before walking away.

Gabriella ran up to her room and grabbed her cell phone and put into her purse before heading out and locking the door.

She got into the car and slammed the car door shut. Her aunt started the engine and backed out of the driveway and onto the road.

"Gabi, this is Michelle, Hannah and Charice" Kate introduced.

The three Asian girls greeted in usion "Hello"

"So Gabriella, what grade are you in?" Michelle questioned attempting to make conversation.

"I'm a Junior" Gabriella answered shyly.

"She's so short" Hannah whispered to Charice.

"I know" Charice whispered back letting out a tiny chuckle.

_Fuck you_ She thought to herself.

"Oh, is it hard?" Michelle asked batting her eyelashes.

Gabriella nodded just wanting the awkward conversation to end. But than she realized it would make her sound like she's a mentally challenged person. Why couldn't have she say no?.

"Of course" Michelle replied back.

Gabriella gave a fake light chuckle but inside she just wanted to roll her eyes.

Michelle attempted to make a conversation with her and tried to include her in the conversations throughout the whole ride.

As soon as they got out to the movie theatre, they paid for their tickets and watched the movie Just Go With It.

When the movie finished, they got out the theatre and went to McDonalds, ordered food and ate. Once they were finished , they got inside the car and drove off.

"She's retarded" Michelle mumbled.

Gabriella couldn't believe it. She rarely talked the time she spent with them. She literally wanted to punch her. Gabriella guessed that Kate must have told them about her math situation.

"Bye Gabi," Kate waved goodbye. "See you whenever"

"Bye" Gabriella waved goodbye.

She opened the car door and stepped out of the car and slammed the door shut. Gabriella walked up to the front porch, unlocked the door and got inside the house. She spotted her parents in the kitchen and had a conversation before finally going up the stairs and laid up in her bed. She prayed that hopefully things would get better.

* * *

Before Gabriella knew it, the weekend went by so fast. Gabriella dressed in her favorite one shoulder red sweater (idk what they call it) skinny jeans and sketchers shoes. She went downstairs and grabbed some breakfast. She looked at the clock, her eyes widened with fear. It was 7:50 and that was the time her bus came.

Gabriella ran out of the house, forgetting to close the door. She spotted the bus closing its doors.

She panicked yelling out, "Wait, stop!"

But as Gabriella reached the bus stop, she put her hands up to her knees and crouched down a little, panting. "Fuck" She cursed.

She stood up and regained her composure and ran back to the house. She slammed the door shut and went into the kitchen.

_I'm so dead_ Gabriella thought to herself. Her parents were gonna get really mad at her for not being responsible.

She took a deep breath and announced. "Daddy, I missed the bus"

"Gabriella, how could you not be responsible?. Your sixteen years old going on seventeen come December. I don't have to keep telling you the time. You need to learn to manage time" Mr. Montez yelled.

"Yeah, yeah," Gabriella snapped, getting pissed. Just because she missed the bus doesn't mean that her dad had go all world war 2 on her. "Whatever, I just missed the bus boo hoo. It doesn't matter as long as I get to school anyway"

"Your sixteen, Gabriella," Her dad snapped back. "You need to learn how to manage your time."

"Oh my god," Gabriella cried out, throwing her hands up in the air. "Dad, just take me to school. I don't want to be late for class."

"Fine," Mr. Montez snapped. "But if you miss your bus one more time. Your getting your phone taken away"

Gabriella rolled her eyes growled. She loved her parents but they were being a little too much. "I don't care" She stomped all the way to the garage and got into the car. Her dad grabbed the keys went out to the garage. He opened the car, inserted the key, turned on the engine, buckled his seatbelt and backed out of the car.

The car ride to school was awkward. When the car finally came to halt. She grabbed her things, unbuckled her seatbelt, opened the door and stepped out, slamming the car door behind her. Gabriella ran fast as she could towards the inside of the school.

Her locker was all the way in the other side of school and her homeroom was in the second floor. She didn't want to be late. So she raced towards her locker. Gabriella opened the locker, put her things inside and slammed it shut before racing towards the stairs.

_BAM!_

Gabriella felt herself colliding against a body before falling to the crowd. She sat up on the floor and put herself in a push up postion grabbing her things.

"I am so sorry, I should have watched where I was going" A masculine voice mumbled.

Gabriella looked up and saw Troy Bolton in a custom made wildcats tracksuit, the front of his hair was slicked back, his shining blue eyes gazing right at her.

"Sorry" She mumbled quietly, letting her shyness take over. "I should have been looking where I was going"

"Its alright," He grinned as she stood up. "Your in my homeroom, Gym, Lunch & English right?"

Gabriella nodded her head.

"Why are you so quiet?" He questioned?.

Gabriella shrugged.

Suddenly, the bell rung and Gabriella groaned. She was late for class which means she was going to get a detentention because Mrs. Darbus wasn't exactly a fan of tardies.

"Hey," Troy tried to cheer her up. "At least we'll face Mrs. Darbus's wrath together"

Gabriella let out a small smile as the two trudged up the stairs.

"Gabriella, you remind of a crab that's too stubborn to go out of its shell" Troy stated.

Gabriella giggled.

"I don't want to be the only talking here. I feel like I'm talking to a wall" Troy joked.

Gabriella chuckled with no answer.

"Your not gonna talk aren't you?" Troy asked knowing what was going to be.

"Well, if this isn't going to make you talk than I don't what will" Troy said before he started tickling Gabriella.

Gabriella launched into a laughing fit. "Fine, okay, you win" She said quietly in between laughter.

But Troy kept on tickling and tickling her. Gabriella picked up her notebook and whacked him in the face.

Troy stopped and cringed a little as Gabriella escaped from him.

"Hey, get back here!" Troy yelled out as he chased her.

Gabriella giggled as she ran even faster before he caught up to her and grabbed her waist.

"Let go!" Gabriella tried to wrangle out of Troy's arms.

"Not until, you apologize for running away from me" Troy said in a sing song voice.

"I'm sorry" Gabriella mumbled.

"Good, now tha-"

""Ahem," A voice cleared.

The two twisted around and saw the 5'7 dark-skinned man with an afro looking straight at them firmly.

"I'm writing you two up. Your supposed to be in a class not in a lovey dovey date" He stated as he scribbled down on his clipboard before handing them out a referral paper.

"Where are you supposed to be going?"

"Mrs Darbus's homerom" Troy answered folding the piece of paper and stuffing it into his pocket.

"Okay, come with me" The man ordered.

The man led them to Mrs. Darbus's classroom. He opened the door and announced. "Darbus, I got two of your hooligans messing around in the hallway"

Troy and Gabriella stepped inside the classroom looking very embarrassed. The class whispered and giggled towards each other.

"Thank you," Mrs Darbus nodded her head gesturing for him to leave the room. "Have a good day"

"You too" The man responded as he walked out of the classroom.

Gabriella felt the stares as she walked to her seat and slumped down in embarrassed.

"She's dumb" A voice said.

"I know right" Another voice spoke.

Gabriella looked up to the front of the classroom and spotted Troy sticking his tongue at her.

Gabriella gave a small smile before turning her attention to the teacher.

_Oh boy, this year is going to be pretty interesting_ She thought to herself.

* * *

A/N I know, I know, you expected it to be a well written chapter but isn't. I'm sorry that this chapter is so crappy and so pointless but I wanted to give you some more background on Gabriella's life and I wanted to get started with one of the storylines and I must say, I didn't give much effort like I did in the last two chapters but the next chapter, I will. I just wanted to get out a chapter. So sorry!. Click that purple button and tell me what you think of this crappy chapter.

Radiate love. Help prevent bullying.


	4. Welcome To My Life

**Love & Acceptance**

**Disclaimer: Everyone knows I don't own HSM. I wish I could but I didn't.**

**A/N I am extremely sorry that I couldn't update for the last few months. I have a virus on my computer that deleted all my files, documents, pictures, videos and programs on my computer except for the internet. My dad won't let me use his computer because for his work and my brother won't let use his laptop. But he finally caved in. Woo. I'm so happy I could go back to my love of writing. I'm sorry I haven't updated Stranger 2, I don't know when Samanta and I will get back to writing that story and as for The Secret Lives Of American Teenagers, I just want to focus on this story because this story is practically my baby. I love it so dearly and hold this story close to my heart. But I will get back to writing TSLOFAT soon. That's a promise I can make. (: Now enough for me to rant. Happy reading.**

* * *

A week later on Saturday night. Gabriella was getting ready for the family party that was to begin in a hour. She put on mauve lipstick, black eyeshadow, liquid to make her eyes pop out, eyeliner, pinkish redish blush. She walked over to her radio and blasted Selena Gomez's new CD "When The Sun Goes down" She pressed the next button to Who Says and sang along as she walked over to her closet, opened the closet door, picked out a plain white tank top, a leather jacket, _skinny jeans and black boots._

_Who says_

_Who says your not perfect_

_Who says your not worth it_

_Who says you're the only one that's hurting_

_Trust me_

_That's the price of beauty_

_Who says your not beautiful_

_Who says_

_Who says your dumb?._ Gabriella thought bitterly. _Everyone_

"Gabriella, we're leaving" Her mother shouted from downstairs.

"Okay," She yelled back. "I'll be down in a minute. She turned off the radio and took one last check of herself in the mirror before stepping out of the room, dragging her feet down the staircase. She turned off the lights in the house than opened the door, walked out and into the fresh air. The dark sky was filled with glistening bright stars. The moon shined so brightly. The breeze leaving her chilly.

Gabriella opened the car door, got herself in and slammed the car door shut. The car pulled out of the driveway into the road.

The car pulled into a driveway of a brown bricked large house. Mr. Monez turned the engine off. Gabriella unbuckled her seatbelt and than the Montezes got out of the car.

The family walked up to the front porch and rang the door bell. They heard footsteps coming from inside the house. Within a few moments, the door swung open and a large black haired man with a mustache greeted them. "Hello, guys. Thank you guys for coming to my birthday party"

"We wouldn't miss for the world bro" Mr. Montez formed a smile as he reached for a manly hug. As the two departed from the hug. The man's eyes narrowed towards Gabriella. "Gabriella you look nice today" He commented.

"Thank you Uncle Jesse"

Uncle Jesse smiled warningly as he took a few steps back and gestured for them step inside. "Come in, come in. Gabriella, Kate and the others are down in the basement. Why don't you join them?"

Gabriella nodded as she stepped into the house. The living room was painted grey. The living room had a white couch, a clear glass coffee table. A framed picture of Kate and her family. A flat screen TV stood in front of the living room. The living room was filled with adults mingling with one another.

Before Gabriella could waddle her way towards the basement. Her mother pulled her aside. "Not before you eat first"

"Okay, Mom" Gabriella pressed her lips as the family walked into the kitchen. The kitchen has tuscan look, the walls were painted brown, the table and, chairs and basically had all the tuscan look.

The aroma of the food made her get a plastic plate, fork and spoon as she gave herself a helping of two fried chicken pieces and lo mein. Gabriella sat down on the kitchen table with her parents and chewed in silence.

A woman with black curly hair wearing a red dress, high heels and red lipstick hurried over to the Montez family. "Hello, Maria, Robert, Gabriella," She greeted them with a warming smile. "Its so good to see you again.

"Its good to see you again too. I'm sorry about your fathers passing" Mr. Montez chimed in.

"Oh, its alright," The woman replied. "We're doing alright. I still can't believe Daddy died"

The three adults chattered throughout the meal. As soon as Gabriella was done. She cleared her throat and spoke. "Hey Mom, I'm done. Im going down to the basement"

However her mother didn't respond as she's too busy chatting with the lady. Gabriella sat up from her seat, threw the food in the trash and got herself a cup of coke and went down the basement. As soon as she arrived. One of her family friends noticed her appearance. "Gabi" A 11 year old girl with black hair, wearing a Abercrombie sweats and hoodie.

"Abby" She shouted back in excitement. The two girls ran towards each other and hugged.

"Gabi" Kate greeted as she ran towards Gabriella so as Vanessa and Andrea.

"I love your outfit!" Kate commented.

"Thank you"

"Oh my god, Nessa, I can't still can't believe your in middle school" Gabriella said.

"I know it seems like yesterday I was 4" Vanessa giggled.

"Oh my god yesterday, I was at Brunswick Zone and someone stole my white sunglasses" Kate announced.

Gabriella started giggling. "That's funny"

"She's slow" Kate mumbled under her breath.

Gabriella felt like shaking the girl. Why does everything she do or say seem stupid. It didn't seem stupid at all for thinking it was funny or was it stupid thing to think it was funny that a pair of white sunglasses got stolen.

The girls engaged into conversation gossiping with whatever is going on in life and shared funny stories.

Gabriella pulled out her ipod touch and went to the camera app. "Look at the camera" She gestured her friend Andera to pose. "Dumb" Andera mumbled under her breath.

Gabriella wanted to roll her eyes. It was a ipod touch with a camera installed in it. What was she supposed to say ipod touch camera. It seemed so awkward to say it. Well at least to her.

Andera and Gabriella posed for the camera than she went to her Facebook app and saw one friend request. She went to see who requested to be her friend than she saw Troy Bolton's name and a picture of him smiling with the basketball team behind him. She grinned at the picture, he looked pretty hot when he smiled. She pressed accept than proceeded to upload the picture on Facebook.

Once uploaded, she turned back to her friends who were messing with the boys. Minutes later, her phone dinged and saw a Facebook notification that said one picture comment. Gabriella went on the app and pressed on the notifications and it said Troy Bolton commented on Gabriella Montez's picture.

She went into her photo and blushed deeply at the comment that Troy put which said. You look sexy. (:

Gabriella pressed comment and typed in _Lol thanks (:_

A moment later, her phone dinged and saw Troy's comment._ No Prob. Hey, text me! 104 446 321_

She pressed comment and typed in. Okay.

She pressed the home button and went into her contacts and typed in his number and name. She sent him a text saying Hey, its me Gabriella.

She turned off her iphone wanting to socialize with her friends than text Troy.

"Hey Gabriella, wanna come with me to get a drink?" Kate questioned.

"Sure, I'd love to" Gabriella stood up from her seat.

Selena pulled Kate aside and whispered "I thought you hate Gabriella" "So" was Kate's reply.

Gabriella felt her heartbreak in a million pieces. Everytime, Kate said "I hate her" her heart sank. The girl she grew up, the girl she lived with for three months when her house was sold and her house was currently being built at the time, the girl she told her secrets to, the girl she trusted and most importantly was her best friend. The reason why she hated her was because she was never there for her. Supposedly, it was all about her. It wasn't true. She tried to give her advice, she always defended Kate when someone said mean things about her. Gabriella had a hard time processing her real feelings. She was too shy to really give her friends the real comfort they needed. She always wanted to give her friends a hug or something to comfort them but her shyness and social anxiety always got in the way. It wasn't her fault. She had social anxiety. She loved Kate dearly and purely. She would do anything for her. Give her money when she didn't have enough to buy a certain item and buy her gifts from when on vacation. She loved her so much why couldn't Kate return the love back.

Life wasn't so fair. She wish she was liked, loved and accepted. Life kept getting worser and when every school year begins, she feared she might lose her best friend Betsy or something bad would really happen than before. She was scared for the future, she didn't want to end up like a failure. She missed the past when things were happy, she hated the present where her life so miserable and feared for the future. She wished life could just pause and take everything in or at least go by so slow. But High School was going by really fast. Next year she was going to be a senior graduating come next spring. That moment she feared would come by so fast.

Kate and Gabriella walked up the stairs towards the kitchen. Gabriella grabbed two cups and picked up a bottle of coke and poured for the two of them.

"So why are you Facebook statuses has been so depressing lately?"

"Um, I don't know," Gabriella hesitated before answering, not wanting to tell her the real reason. "I just like putting what I feel"

"What happened?. What caused you to be put depressing statues?. Come on we're best friends. You tell me everything and can tell me everything. Come on, girl spill your guts out!" Kate urged Gabriella to spill.

But before she could say anything, a 4 old boy dragged his feet toward the girls. "Where's my sister?" The dark haired little boy asked, his innocent chocolate brown eyes sparkling.

"In the basement" Gabriella responded as she reached in a hug. "No!" The boy yelled as he hit her and ran away.

"He's so nice" Gabriella mumbled sarcastically.

Kate giggled. "Yeah, he is"

The two girl trudged down the basement and overheard their friend Chanel talking about her new boyfriend.

"Oh my god, is he cute?" Gabriella questioned stupidly squealing.

"She's slow" Chanel mumbled whispered towards Selena "I know" Selena mumbled back.

Gabriella mentally slapped herself realizing it was a stupid question. Of course he would be cute to her friend Chanel. Why did she have to be so stupid sometimes.

Embarrassed and wanting to take her mind off of her blonde moment. She turned on her iphone. A notification "New message" displayed on the screen. She opened the message read: _Heyyy what you doing?"_

She moved her fingers as she typed. _At a family party. Wbu?_

Troy: Cool. Just chilling in my room. _Wow!. Quiet girl goes to parties. Wow_

Gabriella: _Stfu. it's a family party so of course I have to go!._

Troy: _Wow. Don't use bad language missy_

Gabriella: _I can if I want to. :P_

Troy: _Wow, your fierce. You should be like that at school_

Gaabriella: _LOL_

As soon as her phone dinged, she opened it and it read:_ LOL SMILEY FACE_

Gabriella chuckled. Troy was a dork but a hot dork.

She was about to reply to his dorky message until Kate took her phone and confiscated it from her. it's a party. Its not isolate yourself and text time. Come on. Gabriella. You have to have some fun"

"Oh, alright" Gabriella rolled her eyes as she continued to enjoy the party.

Later, Gabriella wanted to take some pictures for Facebook so she gave her phone to some girl and asked her to take a picture. Gabriella and her friends made jumping poses. It took a couple of hilarious shots to get it right. Her friend Selena standing alone next to the girl who was taking the picture.

"Come on Selly. Come take pictures with us" Gabriella urged her because she was alone.

Selena shook her head and mumbled towards the girl next to her. "I don't like her.

Gabriella felt her heart stung. She always sent 3 pages long texts full of advice to her whenever she needed her. She always was so good to her. Why did she didn't like her?. Because of her slowness?. It wasn't fair, it was her flaw and something she couldn't control. Why couldn't her friends like her for her?.

Gabriella ignored it and continued to have fun with her friends.

As soon as it was over, Kate gave back her phone before she left her house.

When she arrived home, saddness took upon her. Why did her friends hate or disliked her?. She didn't do anything wrong. Sure, she made a couple mistakes with Kate. But it was a forgiven and forgotten thing. She wasn't perfect. She wasn't angelic as she wished she could be. She wasn't beautiful like those photoshopped celebrities in the magazine, she wasn't rich and couldn't afford high trendy clothing, she wasn't funny or outgoing as her cousin. She couldn't be girl everyone wants her to be. She felt like the loneliest person in the world now. Why couldn't she be loved and accepted. She trudged up the stairs, opened the bathroom door than slammed it shut. She opened the drawer and pulled out a silver, shiny object that appeared to be a knife. She closed the drawer and sat down on the floor. Gabriella placed the knife on the cold wooden floor. She picked up her Iphone and went to the Youtube app and played the song Welcome To My Life by Simple Plan. It fitted her life perfectly.

_Do you ever feel like breaking down?_

_Do you ever feel out of place,_

_Like somehow you just don't belong_

_And no one understands you?_

_Do you ever wanna run away?_

_Do you lock yourself in your room_

_With the radio on turned up so loud_

_That no one hears you're screaming?_

"Yes" Gabriella answered the song as she picked up the knife. Would anybody care if she would die?. Nobody liked her, everyone wouldn't care. Maybe her parents wouldn't care either because she was a stupid child and her 18 year old brother who was currently studying in Harvad. Her parents always suppored her, at times she would feel as if her dad loved him more than her because he would always pay attention to him more about basketball. Her parents always talked about his activites than more than what she would do.

Tears spilled from her dark chocalate brown eyes.

She pulled up her sleeves so she could her cut her wrists.

She wished everybody could step into her shoes and see what's it like to be me.

_No one knows what's it like to be her._

_No, you don't know what it's like_

_When nothing feels all right_

_You don't know what it's like_

_To be like me_

What was wrong with her?. Her slowness, her being dumb?. Besides that. What was wrong with her?. Was she a worthless human being that was less valued to human society?. She couldn't figure it out.

_To be hurt_

_To feel lost_

_To be left out in the dark_

_To be kicked when you're down_

_To feel like you've been pushed around_

_To be on the edge of breaking down_

_And no one's there to save you_

_No, you don't know what it's like_

_Welcome to my life_

All the events that had been happening lately, it kept pulling her off the edge. She received her plan test score and it was poor. She feared her future was ruined. She wouldn't get into a good college, she wouldn't get a good job considering how the last job she applied didn't respond to her back. She feared that she would grow up as an failure. Something that she didn't want.

She wished she was her cousin. Her cousin is every girl wants her to be. Smart, beautiful, talented, outgoing and funny. She envied her how people liked her more than her. Not that she could care less about it.

Do you wanna be somebody else?Are you sick of feeling so left out?Are you desperate to find something moreBefore your life is over?Are you stuck inside a world you hate?Are you sick of everyone around?With their big fake smiles and stupid liesWhile deep inside you're bleedingNo, you don't know what it's likeWhen nothing feels all rightYou don't know what it's likeTo be like meTo be hurtTo feel lostTo be left out in the darkTo be kicked when you're downTo feel like you've been pushed aroundTo be on the edge of breaking downAnd no one's there to save youNo you don't know what it's likeWelcome to my life

Gabriella picked up the knife and let the knife slash through her wrists creating deep red lines. Gabriella scowled. It wasn't deep enough. She wanted it to be deep enough for it to bleed to death. If she died. Probably no one would care.

_No one ever lied straight to your face_

_And no one ever stabbed you in the back_

_You might think I'm happy_

_ but I'm not gonna be okay_

_Everybody always gave you what you wanted_

_You never had to work it was always there_

_You don't know what it's like, _

_what it's likeTo be hurt_

_To feel lost_

_To be left out in the dark_

_To be kicked when you're down_

_To feel like you've been pushed around_

_To be on the edge of breaking down_

_And no one's there to save you_

_No, you don't know what it's like (What it's like)_

_To be hurt_

_To feel lost_

_To be left out in the dark_

_To be kicked when you're down_

_To feel like you've been pushed around_

_To be on the edge of breaking down_

_And no one's there to save you_

_No, you don't know what it's like_

_Welcome to my life_

_Welcome to my life_

_Welcome to my life_

She kept cutting her wrists wanting it to be deep. But it wouldn't. Her skin didn't break anymore.

Gabriella threw her knife into the ground, as tears poured out of her eyes. It was a epic failure.

Failure that was destined to be her forever.

Welcome to her life

* * *

**Soooooo watcha think?. How's my writing?. What do you think of the characters ecpecially Gabriella?. How does this story connect with you in some way?. Who's your favorite character in this story and why?. Do you think Kate is being unfair?. Will you be able to answer all these questions in a review. if so, PLEASE review. i'd like you to review it. I'm sorry my writing is so rushed. Big apolgizes for that. I'll try not to!. Anyway, have you guys seen Sharpay's Fablous Adventures?. I screamed when i saw Ryan. I loved the Ryan and Sharpay scene. It made me smile like a idiot. There's no Sharpay without Ryan. Moving on, i can't wait to see icarly's ilostmymind. i SO can't wait to see what happenes between Carly and Freddie. OMFG, i saw the trailer of New Years Eve and Zac looked so hot. His character seems so engergetic compared to other characters Zac played. I can't for this movie and i can't wait to see him act. BTW, i saw HP7. The ending made me smile like a idiot as well. Loved it!. **

**Before i shut up, i want you guys to follow me on Twitter. Here's the link /#!/2pinkstarbabii. Follow me!.**

**Kudos!**

**2pinkstar7blackberry**


	5. Alone In The Dark

**Love and Acceptance**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything except any unfamiliar characters or place.**

**A/N: I apologize for not updating since July. I have a reason for not doing so. I had a virus on my computer that hid all my programs, documents and files. There was nothing to do except for the internet. But just yesterday, I just received a late Christmas gift from my parents which was a laptop. With all that being said, I can now finally post more chapters on . I am officially back and will continue to provide more chapters until this story is done I would like to thank all my reviewers for sticking me since the beginning. I have so much planned for 2012. I hope you continue on my journey in my career. Love you all. Now on to chapter 5.**

* * *

An hour later after her attempt to cut herself had turned into an epic failure. She went on the internet to remove her negative thoughts. Gabriella scrolled down the page of JustjaredJr reading celebrity news but suddenly, something in the corner of her eye. She spotted her notebook sitting in the corner of the desk haunting her. Gabriella thought for a few minutes before exiting out of the internet. She grabbed her notebook than flipped to a open page and began to jot down her poem.

_I open a door that leads to happiness._

_But in a twist of dark fate_

_It halts to a stop_

_Everywhere I look_

_I see the truth_ _around me_

_How could I be so stupid to believe?_

_I don't know what to do_

_I don't know where to go_

_I need a home where I belong_

_A door closes_

_I walk around wondering which door to open_

_I can't decide_

_Everything looks so real and surreal_

_But I can't help but wonder what's behind closed doors_

_Will I be able to find happiness again?_

_Or will I be doomed in a world filled with darkness?._

Gabriella closed her notebook shut and slumped in her chair. Why did her life seem so complicated?. Why couldn't she have died when she a premature baby?. Why did she have to be slow and dumb?. Why did her life suck so bad?. Why didn't anybody like her?. What did she do to have a horrible life like this?. All these questions ran through her mind. Her heart sunk at she thought about the future. She desperately wanted to have a better future and do something so big that proved everybody wrong. But in her heart, she knew that could never be and that she was destined to be a failure for forever. It was the cold hard truth that she had to accept. No matter how she tried to fight back the tears. She lost the battle and tears welt down her eyes. Gabriella stood up from her chair and walked to her closet, flinging the door open. She quickly grabbed her black sweatpants and a black t-shirt that had cheetah print lettering that said love pink. Gabriella changed into her sleeping clothes and shut her closet door and walked to her bed. She pushed her comforters and slid into her bed and pulled the covers up to her chest. She flicked on the lights and laid on her back staring into the ceiling. The thoughts that ran through her head made her unable to sleep. Gabriella sniffled as she turned on her shoulder and pulled the covers over her head. She tried to remove the thoughts from her head but they wouldn't go away no matter how hard she tried. They couldn't be removed from her thoughts completely. She fought long and hard. It seemed like forever until she finally fell asleep.

Gabriella awoke to the sun shining brightly over her eyes. It was too much to bare. It burned her eyes. She covered her eyes for a few moments before removing them trying to adjust to the light. She glanced at the clock. It read 8:30 am. She groaned as she stretched and yawned. It was too early to be up. Her phone beeped which caught her attention. Who would be up at 8:30 am in the morning texting?. She wasn't much of an early bird. But on this particular Saturday Morning, curiosity took over her as she grabbed her phone and unlocked her iphone. It read 1 new text messege. She pressed open and the messege popped up on the screen. The text messege was by none other than Troy Bolton who texted her 'Rise and Shine' Gabriella smiled as she pressed the reply button and quickly typed her answer and sent it. A few minutes later, her phone dinged.

_Gabriella: Why are you up early?_

_Troy: I could ask you the same thing_

_Gabriella: I just woke up_

_Troy: Nice. I just finished basketball practice_

_Gabriella. Awesome_

_Troy: Not really_

_Gabriella: Haha!_

_Troy: Hey Gabriella. You should talk more. You would have more friends by doing that._

_Gabriella: I can't I'm too shy._

_Troy: Well get over it. I'm gonna help you be unshy._

_Gabriella: Good luck, you Wildcat. Roar_

_Troy: I like that nickname_

_Gabriella: Than I shall call you WildCat from now on_

_Troy: I like the sound of that =D_

As soon as she was about to reply, she heard her parents call her downstairs. She sighed and put her phone back on her nightstand. Gabriella slowly removed the covers from her bed. Her body now shivering from the cold temperatures from the house. Her feet touched the cold hardwood floor. Gabriella lifted herself from the bed & stood up. She made her bed & stalked out of her bedroom and went down the stairs. She could smell the aroma of the sizzling bacon and eggs being cooked and the sound of her parents engaged into a conversation. Her feet hit the floor and carried them into the kitchen.

"Mommy!" Gabriella threw her arms around her 5 ft tall, black curly haired mother who was standing in front of the stove cooking bacon and eggs.

"Morning Mija," Maria Montez kissed her daughters forehead. "I trust you slept well?."

"Yes" Gabriella responded.

The woman picked up a plate and plopped a scrambled egg and four pieces of bacon into a plate and shoved it into Gabriella's hands. "Go eat your breakfast.

"Your father and I need to talk to you about something" She added.

Gabriella joined her father in the kitchen table. Within a few minutes, her mother the two at the table.

Mr. Montez cleared her throat before attempting to speak. "Gabriella, your case manager called & informed me that you have been refusing to get your tests read to you. It's very important for your test to be read. She said that the test you will be taking soon cannot be retaken. So it's very important that you will get it read too."

Gabriella sighed in did her teachers treat as if she had dyslexia?. She was sick and tired being thought of as dumb, slow and retarded. It made her feel bad about herself so she had refused any help unless if she really needed and refused getting her tests being read to just so she could prove that she could do things on her own to prove to them she doesn't any help. In the past, she gave a attidude to the staff refusing any help. She felt bad about it but than remembered the pain that she had felt and thought nothing of it. The people made her become weak, paraoid, insecure and depressed. Before anything that had happened. She was once a careless, happy go lucky girl. But that girl was gone with the wind.

Sometimes, she wished she wasn't overanalyizing everything because if she did, it made her become paranoid.

"Dad, I don't the help. " Gabriella insisted.

"Gabriella, your case manager called my cell phone and home number and even left me 10 voice mails. She even thanked me for helping you to make the decision that's right for you. I'm going to be embarassed if you don't. I promised that woman I would do everything in my power to make you get your tests read to. She would think as if I don't care about you!" Mr. Montez said in a harsh tone.

"Dad. I don't need it. I don't need their help. I can do it on my own." Gabriella responded stubbornly.

"Gabriella, you don't understand anything. Why can't you just accept the fact that you do need help!." Mr. Montez scolded.

"Why can't you can't understand the fact that I don't need help!" She shot back.

"If you fail than it's all on you. Don't blame me if your gonna fail. " Mr. Montez snapped.

"Who says i'm gonna fail?"

"Gabriella, you have D's in your progress report card. What else can I say to that?" Mr. Montez voice grew louder, his frustration building up.

Gabriella felt her blood boil. Aderline was rushing through her blood. She felt like she was going to explode. Her father's remark made her angry. How dare her father make up some lie. She knew when she was angry, she didn't think anything about what she was going to say and that lead her to trouble in the midst of her anger.

"Excuse me, Dad," Gabriella's voice grew louder. " Let's get this one thing straight. That was last year in Algebra That's it. I'm a junior year and i'm doing better than last year. I got C'S and one B. So get that straight"

"Gabriella Marie Montez," Mrs. Montez shouted, anger rising. "Don't use that tone with me. I'm sick and tired of you not listening to me. Why cant you listen to one thing I want you to do. I want you to do what's best for you. You need the help because I want you to get better grades. But you can't do that unless you receive the help you need

Why can't you understand and accept that fact that your in special education and the fact that you need it!"

Gabriella grew irritated and even more angry. Why couldn't her father understand what she's going through and why she doesn't need the help. She didn't need the help anyway. Why couldn't she prove everyone wrong. It felt like it was a battle that she would never win and she was currently losing to it. She wished her dad would shut up about it.

Out of anger and annoyance. She mumbled under her breath. "Shut up"

But unfortunately for her. Her parents heard.

Mr. Montez thrust his fists on the kitchen table. "Shut your damn mouth of yours. You will not speak to me that way!. If you can't listen to me than I will not listen to you. I won't buy you any new clothes, I won't get what you want. I won't listen to you ever again. Do you hear me?. I will not tolerate using that word to me. I am not your friend. I am your father. But obviously you can't understand that.

Unable to control her anger, Mrs. Montez stood up and walked towards Gabriella pulled her by the shirt and dragged her towards the bathroom.

"Hey, let go of me" Gabriella wailed as she struggled to get out of her mother's grasp.

"You have a dirty mouth and you can't use it towards me or your father like that," Mrs. Montez yelled angrily. "I need to clean that damn dirty mouth of yours"

Mrs. Montez opened the doors and shoved her daughter into the bathroom, she went near the sink and used her other hand while her other hand was holding her daughter.

Gabriella realized what she was going to do and yelped. "Im sorry. I'm sorry. I won't do it again. I swear I won't do it."

Ignoring her daughter's apology, she picked up the bar of soap and forced open her daughter's mouth as tears welled out of her daughter's glassy eyes. Mrs. Montez wanted to stop so badly what she was doing. But was sick and tired of her daughter's bad language towards her and her husband and she wanted to teach her a lesson so she could make sure she could never do it again.

Mrs. Montez thrust the soap in her daughter's mouth as Gabriella's cries filled the room.

Gabriella felt the bitter tangy taste of the soap. It tasted horrible. A few seconds later, pulled the soap out of her mouth & put back in it's than pushed her daughter's face into the sink, lifting the faucet within a few minutes, water began to pour down.

Gabriella shoved water into her mouth, gargling and attempting to the bad taste out of her mouth. A few minutes later, Mrs. Montez shut the faucet down and pulled her out of the bathroom, up the stairs into her room.

"Your grounded for the weekend. No TV, no computer and no phone!." Mrs. Montez snapped as she snatched away her phone, laptop and unplugged the cable and carried it out of the room with the slam of the door.

Gabriella sighed as she laid in her bed. Why couldn't people understand that the fact she didn't need the help?. Why do people especially her family treat her as if she doesn't anything?. All the questions ran through her head. She was tired of everything and everyone's conceptions about her. No matter how much people make misconceptions about her and judge her for who she is. At the end of the day, Gabriella still knew what was the truth about herself and what was not true.

She wished that people could give her a chance for people to outlook her slowness in Algebra and see who she really is and focus more on the strengths and not on the weakness. There was so much to her than being just the retarded girl in the school. If only could people see that.

Gabriella sighed and laid on her her bed. This was going to be a long weekend.

Later that night, Gabriella sat in her desk fiddling with the pencil in her hand trying up to create a new scene for her story. Gabriella loved writing. She not only loved to write poems but she loved to write in general. She loved to write stories and anything and everything that involved writing. But the downside of writing was writer's block.

Gabriella sighed as she blew a piece of her hair strand across from her face. She couldn't think of anything else to write. She sat in her seat in deep thought until a knock on the door was heard.

"Come in!."

The door flung open and came in her mom. Gabriella quickly shut her notebook and turned her gaze towards her parents.

Mrs. Montez cleared her throat. "I just wanted to talk to you about this morning."

Gabriella crossed her arms and answered firmly. "I'm listening."

Mrs. Montez closed the door behind her and sat on the bed and motioned for her daughter to sit next to her.

Hesitating, Gabriella got up from her seat and walked slowly towards her mom and sat on the bed next to her.

"I am not happy with what you did this morning. What you did was wrong," Mrs. Montez started. "So don't try to act like a victim."

Gabriella rolled her eyes. "I'm not acting like the victim. It's just that Dad was being unfair this morning."

"What he was saying to you was right. We are concerned for your education and your future. We're doing what's best for you," Mrs Montez explained hoping that her daughter would understand it. "The teachers at school told your dad that you do better when your tests are being read to"

"It's just that I mess up on the scantron and sometimes I forget the answers."

"But the teachers are going to help you with that. Honey, you need to accept the fact your a special education kid. But that doesn't make you any different. You just learn at different pace than school"

Gabriella grew irritated. "Yeah but I only need help in Algebra but I'm alright in other subjects. I just need to study harder.

"Yeah, if you study hard than it won't be a problem. Maybe you'll receive less help and nobody would think your dumb if you prove to them that you can do it on your own if you study harder."

"I know. That's something I need to work on."

Mrs. Montez smiled and stroked her daughter's hair. "That's the spirit!"

Gabriella sighed and made an apology. "I'm sorry for what I did this morning. It's just that you guys make me so mad sometimes."

"And we don't?" Mrs Montez mumbled. "Look. I would never swear or say shut up to you. Your my daughter and I love you"

"I love you too mom," Gabriella responded. " but Im a hormonal teenager. What do you expect?"

Mrs. Montez laughed. "Honey, I don't think that's the problem. You need to try to think before you do your actions. What you do can hurt other people's feelings."

"I know i'm sorry and I know I need to work it out. But i'm not perfect." Gabriella replied.

Mrs. Montez cracked open a smile. "Nobody is"

"I know, I know" She sighed.

"Sweetie, I love you." Mrs. Montez kissed her daughter's forehead.

"I love you too mommy" Gabriella embraced her mother.

The two pulled from each other apart and Mrs. Montez stood up from her daughter's bed and exited out of her room.

Gabriella loved her mom. No matter what how annoying she can be. She loved her mom no matter how she gets her mad sometimes.

Gabriella gazed at her clock and sighed it was only eight thirty pm. Unfortunately for her, it was going to be a long and boring weekend ahead of her and it was just only Saturday night.

* * *

_Beep! Beep Beep! ! Beep! Beeep! Beeeeeep! Beeeeeeeeeeeeep! Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!_

Gabriella awoke to the sound of her alarm clock, she rolled over and rubbed her sleepy eyes. As soon as her vision began to clear, she gazed at the clock which read 6:00 am.

She yawned and forced herself out of bed. She walked out of her room and flung the bathroom door open. She switched on the lights.

Within a few moments, the lights flickered on and Gabriella covered her eyes, the light was burning her eyes. She adjusted her eyes to the light and hopped into the shower to get ready for school.

As soon as she was done, she turned off the water faucet, wrapped a towel around her body, slid open the curtains and stepped out of the shower and onto the cold air.

She shivered and walked towards the pantry, opened it and grabbed her blow dryer and dried her hair. As soon as she was done, she brushed her hair than her teeth and flicked off the lights and walked into her room. She closed the door behind her and walked towards her closet, slid the door open and went through the rack of clothes trying to find a cute outfit to impress Troy.

She threw on a grey maxidress, put a belt around in the middle of her waist and brown gladiator scandeles.

She closed the cloest door and walked over to her desk next to the wall filled with numerous necklaces hanging on the necklace holder. She chose a white beaded necklace with a white cross pendent. Gabriella picked up brown fringe bag and hung it over her shoulder and stepped out of the room and ran down the stairs and into the kitchen where her mom was standing in front of the stove cooking breakfast. "Morning" Her mom greeted.

Suddenly, her dad walked into the room and everything became awkward. She still hadn't spoken to her dad since the fight and she didn't plan on to because she was still angry with her father.

She sat down in her seat and laid her bag next to her chair. Her mother walked over to the table and placed a plate of spam and rice.

Gabriella dug in and drank her water. Her mom took the cup and refilled with her water and opened the medicine cabinet and took out a prescription bottle, opened and took out two pills specifically for Gabriella to treat her attention deficit disorder.

Her mother handed her the water and pills which Gabriella gladly took and popped the pills into her mouth and downed a glass of water. She wiped her mouth and set it on the table.

She stood up from the table, threw her black bag over her shoulder and kissed her mom on the cheek. "Bye mommy. I love you"

Mrs. Montez smiled. "Love you too Miija. Have a good day at school."

"Sure will"

Gabriella walked out of the kitchen and into the living room and unlocked the door and headed out into the cool fresh crisp morning air. She slammed the door behind her.

The sun was shining on a Monday morning. It was time for another lonely day at school, She was used to this lifestyle since 4th grade. Gabriella walked to the bus stop and pulled out her phone which her mom gave it to her last night before she went to bed. But she didn't get a chance to read her texts. She listened to the chatter of the kids standing all around her about the weekend's events. The screen turned on and she checked her messages which was one of them was Troy. She decided to not text him until after school since she felt lazy to text back.

The bus soon arrived and came to a halt. The bus driver swung the bus doors open and soon students poured inside the bus.

She stepped inside the bus and sighed. She wasn't ready to come to school and deal with people's judgements.

The bus doors closed and soon the bus closed its doors and sped off.

Gabriella took her ipod touch out of her bag and plugged in her ears and chose a "Outside Looking In" by Jordin Pruitt.

_If you could read my mind_  
_You might see more of me than meets the eye_  
_And you've been all wrong_  
_Not who you think I am_  
_You've never given me a chance_

Gabriella listened and nodded her head to the rhythm of the music. Who knew a song could fit her life so much. She felt that this song that was currently playing on was one of of her life's theme song. She replayed the song over and over until she got to school.

Soon the bus came to a halt. She unplugged her ears and put the ipod inside her bag. Gabriella took a deep breath as she unbuckled her seat.

It was time to sink back into reality.

Gabriella stood up from her seat and stepped out of the bus. Everywhere she looked, she spotted her people mingling with one another, joking and laughing. They acted as if they had no cares in the world. She envied them.. She wondered what it was like to have friends who never talked behind their back, made jokes about them and be with them without feeling insecure and without being judged on they say or do. All she wanted was a best friend at least who she could goof around with, someone who she could feel safe and secure with. But she knew it was never going to happen. Everyone thought she was too stupid or slow to be their friend. Either they didn't like her or they just thought she was slow and stupid.

Gabriella walked across the school yard and opened the doors and stepped inside the school. The hallway was filled with kids. She made her way towards her locker and fiddled with the lock.

_Cling!_

The locker was unlocked so she opened the locker than pulled some stuff out of her bag and into her locker.

"Hey" A masculine voice greeted.

Gabriella swirled around to face Troy in a red t-shirt and jeans with converse.

"Hi" She greeted back in a low voice, her shyness taking over.

"What?." Troy asked her leaning forward to hear her better. He knew what she said but he wanted her to speak louder. "I can't hear you."

"Hi" She repeated in a low voice.

"What?."

"Hi" Gabriella answered making her voice sound a little better.

"That's better." Troy grinned. "So, I texted you all weekend. Why didn't you answer my texts?."

"I was grounded." Gabriella answered shyly . as she closed her locker.

"May I ask why?" Troy questioned curiously.

"I talked back to my parents." Gabriella mumbled quietly as she slid a textbook into bag as she walked down the hallway with Troy.

"Interesting," Troy smirked. "I need to see that side of you more often."

Gabriella giggled as the two trudged down the hallway to their homeroom.

After homeroom, Gabriella walked towards her second period class. Suddenly, her phone beeped and she pulled out her cell phone and discovered a new text message. She quickly responded and as soon as she pressed send, she felt herself collide into someone.

"Geez Gabriella," Troy joked. "I may be attractive but there's no reason for you to bump into me."

"Sorry." Gabriella mumbled, her cheeks reddening.

Troy quickly took note of it and responded. "It's okay. Gabriella, I was just messing around with you."

"Oh."

"Troy!" A voice yelled from behind them.

Troy and Gabriella spun around to find Chad running up to them panting.

"Chad," Troy greeted. "I know you like me and all. But seriously man, I didn't know you liked me that much."

_Wow. He certainly loves to joke around. He's perfect._ Gabriella thought to himself.

Chad took a couple of deep breaths before replying. "Coach needs you. He says its a emergency."

"What emergency?"

"I dunno. But go and find out yourself. Chad answered.

"Oh," Troy replied. "I guess i'll see you later. Bye Gabriella."

"Bye." She smiled before she spun back around and proceeded to walk into the dreaded class of the day.

Geometry class.

Gabriella entered the classroom and sat down in her seat.

"Good Morning class!" Mr. Stone. "I have a bell ringer for you. As usual."

Mr. Stone handed her a piece of paper as she quickly took and placed on the desk and read the problem.

_What kind of Triangle is this?._

One side had the number 3 , one side had the number 3 and another side had the number 5

Gabriella wrote down the word "Isosceles" It wasn't that hard to figure it out since two angles were corresponding as equal so thus it had be isosceles. In order for a triangle to be isosceles, it had to have two corresponding angles to be equal.

_Easy peasy lemon squeezy_ Gabriella thought to herself.

A few minutes later, a student blurted out the answer and than her aid Mr. Good came over to check her work.

"Did you figure it out yourself or did you hear them blurt out the answer?." He questioned curiously.

"I figured it out." Gabriella responded quietly.

"Good job" He smiled warmingly than he walke off.

Gabriella grew angry. Did they really think that she was that stupid to not get a simple geometry question right?. Did they think she was uncapable of doing a simple question like that. It angered Gabriella to think that. Just because of her being slow at math doesn't mean she couldn't do it math. She was just slow in learning math. She was just a normal person with learning difficulties. She felt like she was different from everybody else. She wished she was born normal just like everybody else.

The teacher put up problems for the kids to do. Gabriella pulled out a blank piece of paper and began to do the problems.

Within a few minutes, Mr. Good came over and checked her work. "Now wait a minute Gabriella. Your doing it the right way but you need to do it in the exact steps it was written out in the board yesterday."

Mr. Good guided her to do the next few problems before allowing her to do the problems on her own than he left to go help another a student.

Gabriella felt releived. She hated how he kept coming to her for help when she didn't need it. At first it was alright, but she had grown to be annoyed. He wouldn't give her room to breathe. He came in every few minutes to check o her work, help her when she didn't need it and guide it when she knew what she was doing but apparently she didn't do it the way the teacher wanted her to do it but she knew how to do it. It drove Gabriella crazy. Sure, it was nice getting help. But coming over multiple times without asking for help made her drive her crazy.

As soon as class ended much to Gabriella's relief. She stood up from her seat and piled things into her bag and stalked out of the classroom to continue the rest of the day.

As soon as lunch time came, she couldn't wait to go grab some lunch with her best friend Betsy Mcadams.

She saw her sitting in the red lunch table with a wildcat picture plastered on it. "Hey" Gabriella greeted.

Betsy fixed her attention on Gabriella. "Hey!"

"What's up?."

"Nothing. Let's go get some food."

Gabriella nodded as the two friends walked to the lunch line and grabbed their food. When they were done, they walked to their lunch table, sat down and set their lunch tables on their tray.

"So, if you were to date a guy. Would you want a boyfriend that's dominate or weak?" Gabriella attempted to make conversation.

"What does dominate mean?" Betsy asked slightly confused.

Gabriella sighed. Her friend Betsy was really slow and can be street dumb sometimes. She knew what it's like to be called dumb, retarded and slow. But Betsy beat her at being stupid.

"Never mind." Gabriella shook her head.

"Dumb." Betsy mumbled.

She rolled her eyes. Betsy can be seriously dumb sometimes. Gabriella came to a conclusion that she thinks Gabriella can say dumb stuff but really it wasn't. Betsy didn't know what Gabriella was talking about and if she didn't know what Gabriella was talking about or if didn't think it was true, she thought it was dumb.

"Hey, you see that guy right there?" Betsy questioned pointing her finger at a black haired blue brown eyed boy.

"No"

"Well can you ask him out for me?"

"Do you even know his name?"

"No?"

"Than why do want me to ask him out for you?"

"Because he's cute!."

"You do know that your supposed to get to know a guy before you date him. Right?"

Betsy didn't responded and kept on pleading her until Gabriella gave up.

Gabriella stood up from her seat and walked over to the boy and tapped him on his shoulder.

The boy turned around.

"Hi"

"Hey" The boy greeted her.

"Hey. My friend Betsy wants me to ask you if you wanna go out with her?"

"Um," The boy hesitated. "I have a girlfriend. Tell her that and tell her she's pretty and all. But I have a girlfriend "

"Okay" Gabriella nodded.

"But tell her I would love to just stay friends with her and all. "

"Okay and by the way, what's your name?"

"David"

Gabriella nodded. "Okay, well bye"

"Bye" David smiled.

Gabriella walked over to the lunch table announcing. "His name is Darien. He told me he would love to go out with you but he has a girlfriend. He also told me your pretty but he would love to stay friends with you."

"Oh" Betsy said disappointed.

"I'm sorry," Gabriella apologized. "You'll find a great prince charming that would knock you off your feet. I promise."

Betsy glanced down at her food. "Yeahh"

Gabriella felt sorry for her and hugged her. "You deserve a hot ass guy. I know you'll find one soon."

"Nobody ever likes me"

"Your only fourteen Betsy," Gabriella commented. "You still have a lot of time to date guys."

"Yeahh" Betsy said whistlfully before she picked up her milk carton and put it towards her mouth to drink it.

"So how was your weekend?" Betsy questioned smearing the chocolate milk off her mouth.

Gabriella answered. "Fun, I guess."

"Retarded" Betsy mumbled under her breath.

Gabriella wanted to slap her. Sure, she could handle the words dumb and slow. But she could never tolerated the R word. The word didn't exist in her dictionary. She felt anger boil up inside her.

Did Betsy even know what she meant by I guess. Probably not. Gabriella just calmly finished her lunch and tried to carry on the conversation with Betsy as she walked towards her 5th period class after lunch.

Betsy's eyes lightened up as she spotted David. She power walked up towards her the boy. Gabriella quickly followed her.

"Do you have a girlfriend and is your name David?" Betsy questioned him

She's so desperate. Gabriella thought to herself and than she realized something. Did Betsy even believe her?. Did she think that Gabriella was too slow to give the wrong information?. If so, it angered Gabriella. Why couldn't her friend believe anything she told her ?.

"Yes and Yeah," David told her. "I told Gabriella to tell you that and your pretty but I would love to stay friends with you."

"Yeah, I know she told me." Betsy quickly responded.

The one minute bell rang and Gabriella pulled Betsy in a hug. "Well I gotta to go, see ya later!"

Gabriella walked away, relieved to be away from her friend. She needed some time to calm down and to collect her thoughts together.

Suddenly, a blonde girl dressed in a pink skirt, white t-shirt with pink stripes, a pink blazer and white heels with a white bag Chanel bag bumped into her. Gabriella looked at her and the blonde caught her staring at her and muttered "Dumb" under her breath. Gabriella was astounded. She barely knew the blonde girl and she thinks she's dumb but than again, Gabriella remembered that she was in her Algebra class in freshmen year but they really didn't talk.

Gabriella reached towards her English class which was her favorite class of the day. She sat in her seat and began to think about everything that happened today.

She felt so alone. She wished she could have a friend that understood what she was going through. She wished she had a friend who wouldn't think she's dumb or slow. Gabriella immediately felt that she wanted to cut herself again to take the pain away and to show ashamed of who she was and take it out on her body. She felt like she didn't deserve to live. She wished she could be happy but unfortunately, she felt depressed and so alone. Gabriella wished things could get better. She felt so alone in the dark.

* * *

**A/N And it took me 31 pages to write this chapter. I think this may be the longest chapter I've written. I may be wrong, I think i've written a longer chapter than this in my early stories. But this took me forever to write but mostly due to the fact I took a long break.I know this isn't written really good as compared to others fanfictioner's writing style.. But i'm learning as i'm growing. So with that being said, I hope you bare with me as I continue to grow and learn in my craft of writing. Anyway, I put two hints in this chapter that will clue you in on what's going to happen within this story. Can you guess what it is?. If so, please click that WONDERFUL purple down below and type in tell me you guess/comments/questions/suggestions. I would also like for you guys to put on what I need to improve in my writing as well how i'm going with the plot. It would be much greatly appreciated. Oh and what do you think about Betsy (Gabriella's best friend)?. In case if you forgot about who she is. I suggest you read the first chapter because that's when I introduce her in the story. Well I think that's all for now. Until next folks.**

**PS. I have a Youtube under the name of 7blackberry2pinkstar. I put the link in my profile so be SURE to subscribe me and comment on my videos. I also have a Twitter so follow me at 2pinkstarbabii**

**Oh and lastly, REVIEWWWW!. You know you want to**


	6. Electricity

**Love and Acceptance**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything except for the original characters.**

**A/N I just wanted to thank so much for the reviews for the last chapter. Im so excited and happy to be getting such a n emotional response to those people who can relate to the story and especially to the character Gabriella Montez. Just remember, it does get better. I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

"Now class," The English teacher began. "I want you guys to pair up and work on the grammer sheet."

Gabriella just sighed and sunk into her seat and rest her arm on the desk staring down at her desk. As soon as everyone got into pairs of people, the teacher noticed that two people didn't get partnered up.

"Sharpay, why don't you partner up with Gabriella?" Mrs. Grande questioned.

The blonde sighed and picked up her things and made her way over to Gabriella. She plopped in a seat next to her, mustering a "Hi."

The teacher handed out the pieces of paper to the students and went back to her desk to grade paperwork.

"You know what," Sharpay said. "Fuck this shit. Let's just get circle whatever answer"

She scribbled down circles and placed her pencil on her desk and gave a sly smile to her. "Let's just pretend we're doing our work"

"Okay" Gabriella answered back in a quiet voice.

She inspected the blonde's in her pink assemble. Gabriella thought that the girl's wardrobe was interesting. She suddenly felt like she wanted to be friends with the girl. She found the girl interesting to be friends with.

"I like your outfit" Gabriella told her shly.

Sharpay gazed up at her from inspecting her nails. "Thanks. I like your your outfit too."

"So how do you like your classes this year?" Gabriella attempted conversation.

"It's fine. I just wish I didn't have Mrs. Darbus. She's a fucking bitch I swear." Sharpay laughs.

Gabriella giggled. "I know. I hate her. She has like the most boring stories in the history of boring stories"

"I know right"

Silence took over the two girls for five minutes until Gabriella broke the silence. "So what do you like to do in your spare time?."

"Go shopping, get my nails done & hang out with my friends," Sharpay answered taking out a nail file than began to file her nails. "You?"

"I write stories and poems," Gabriella replied back.

Sharpay fixed her attention towards the brunette. "Bookworm, huh?. That's nice. I want to see your work one day."

Gabriella blushed. "Trust me. Their not that good."

"Doubt it"

Suddenly, the bell rang, Gabriella and Sharpay stood up from their seats and piled up their stuff.

"It was nice to meet you." Gabriella said politely

"Same here." Sharpay flashed a smile before trudging down the hallway.

When school finally ended, Gabriella walked out of the school and stepped inside the bus.

She found her friend Betsy sitting in the front seat staring into the window.

Gabriella slipped into the seat. It took a few moments before Betsy realized that her friend was on the bus. She turned her gaze at her and grinned. "Hi!"

"Hey" Gabriella flashed a warm smile.

Betsy smiled at her before looking back at the window.

"So," Gabriella attempted to make conversation. "So what did are going to do this weekend?." She already knew the answer but she was attempting to make conversation.

"I don't like her" Betsy mumbled staring right back at the window.

Annoyed, Gabriella repeated so she could give her a proper answer. "So what did you do this weekend?."

"I told you already," Betsy snapped. "I slept over at my cousin's house"

Gabriella kept quiet, giving up until her friend Tori stepped on the bus and sat across from the bus.

Betsy lightened up when saw her. "Hey Tori"

Tori grinned at the sight of Betsy's smiling face. "Hey girl"

Betsy's attention quickly fixed on her friend's bracelet. "Nice bracelet. "Where did you get it and how much did it cost?."

"A doller" She responds.

"Can I try it out."?

"Sure."

Betsy takes the bracelet, laughing evilly as she raised her hand to her mouth, putting the bracelet inside her mouth.

Okay, someone had a little too much sugar today. Gabriella thought to herself.

"Stop Betsy," Gabriella tried to get the bracelet out of her friend's mouth.

Betsy finally caved in and grabbed the bracelet out of her mouth and gave it to Tori.

She kept on laughing as Gabriella gave a comment. "Well someone's hyper."

Tori wiped the bracelet with her shirt, joking. "No candy for her."

"I'd wash it if I were you" Gabriella spoke.

"Yeah. I'm going to disinfect it right when I get home."

The one thing that annoyed Gabriella was when Betsy gets hyper and does the most annoying and disgusting things just to have people entertain or laugh. But really it doesn't it just made people get more annoyed. The thing about Betsy is that she didn't have common sense and that she couldn't understand that things that have to be a certain way. Whenever Gabriella carried food or drinks into the bus, Betsy attacked her and took her food and ate it and as for the drinks, she also took it from her and tried to take a sip from her straw. Gabriella thought it was disgusting when people drank and ate other people's food and drinks than the person drinks and eats it not caring that another person drank and ate. It was germy and disgusting.

That's why Gabriella didn't let her drink from the straw and Betsy was being obnoxious by taking her food and drink without saying anything. But than again it was typical for Betsy to be taking other people's food and drinks when it wasn't lunch time at school.

Betsy couldn't understand why she wouldn't let her drink from the straw so she muttered. "I hate her"

No matter how Gabriella tried to be there for her, nice to her and spoil her. It seemed like she can't satisfy her and that's what made Gabriella frustrated to no end.

She bought Betsy a birthday cake and threw her a birthday party last year, she was there for her when Betsy cried because her brother was going away to college and she gave her gifts she did everything in her power to be a great friend to her but all she did was hate.

Gabriella must admit she did make a few silly mistakes. She got mad at Betsy for not wanting to walk with Betsy before school started. Truth was, Gabriella felt so lonely and she didn't have much friends to hang out with because she was shy in school. She felt so bored in her life. She was sick and tired of sitting home everyday when she knew she could be outside having fun with friends. But the thing is that she didn't have friends. But the ones that she did have backstabbed her in the back. She wished she could have done something to make the people she loved love her back but of course she was human. She was not perfect and that's what she wished everyone would accept.

There's one moment where felt like her friends were really her friends but there is moments where she felt she didn't have any due to her friends backstabbing behavior.

She prayed, she hoped, she wished that someday people would love and accept her for her. But she knew of course she knew that it would never happen.

The bus finally came to a halt. Gabriella, Betsy and Tori stepped out off the bus. The sky was nothing but baby blue. The sun shined brightly, the birds chirped and the wind blew as their hair flew in all different directions. It was a beautiful Monday afternoon.

"See you guys tommrow!" Tori smiled as she waved goodbye.

The two girls returned the goodbyes and began their walk towards. Once the girls reached Gabriella's driveway. She hugged Betsy and said. "Text me."

Betsy muttered under her breath. "I hate her."

Gabriella felt anger boil through her veins. She didn''t do anything to hurt Betsy and yet she hated her. Gabriella wanted to slap her in the face. She was sick and tired of being a good friend to her. Betsy didn't even deserve a good friend like her.

She thought that Gabriella being bossy. But she wasn't. Everyone tells their friend to text them at some point in their lives. It wasn't big deal. Betsy should be grateful that has a friend that cares and loves her.

Gabriella pulled apart from the hug and twirled around and walked towards her house.

She unlocked the door and walked inside the house, slamming the front door behind her. Gabriella quickly marched up into her room and slammed it shut. She dropped the bag and collapsed into warm comfy bed. Her bed was her best friend that allowed her to forget all her problems and go into dreamland. It was her comfort zone. It protected her from the horrible outside world.

A few minutes later, a knock on the door can be heard. "Come in"

The door flung open and Gariella's father stepped inside the room and than he shut the door behind him.

Awkward silence filled the room until her father cleared his throat and broke the silence. "We need to talk."

Gabriella sighed and sat up on her bed and crossed her arms. "I'm listening."

"I'm not here to apologize. I'm here to work it out," He stated.

Gabriella rolled her eyes not making a word or movement.

Mr. Montez walked towards her bed and sat beside his daughter. "Honey. You need to hear us out. This could be a good thing for you. It could help you decide what you really want to do in life."

"I'm aware but how can I prepare for college?. I need to get used to not getting help because I certainly won't take sign up for the special ed program in college." She snapped.

"You have to accept that your in special Ed," Her father responded back. "Your you. But not anybody else."

"But, what if I want to be like everybody else on a intellectual level" Gabriella said softly.

"Gabriella, your smart. It's just that you don't have good study habits." Mr. Montez stroked his daughter's hair.

"I'm sorry Daddy." Gabriella apolgized.

Mr. Montez leaned and kissed her on the cheek. "It's alright. But your still grounded."

"I love you."

"I love you too.""

Mr. Montez stood up from the bed, walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

Gabriella sighed and laid on her bed. Before she could even close her eyes to take a nap, her phone buzzed.

She groaned grabbing her phone wondering who had texted her. She pressed the home button on her iphone and read.

1 new text message

Troy Bolton

She grinned at the sight of his name flashing on her phone sc screen. She pressed the icon and read his text message.

_Heyyy. Whe can we hang out?._

**Tommrow :)**

_Yayyy. Where?_

**_I guess my house._**

_Even more exciting. I can't to see where the infamous Gabriella Montez lives._

**Haha. Now if you'll excuse me I gotta go take a nap.**

_Kk byee_

**bye nerdd**

_Hurtful ):_

Gabriella laughed as she shook her head. She turned her phone off and placed it on her desk. She snuggled into the comforters of her bed.

As much as Gabriella would hate to admit it but she liked Troy. She liked how he tried to make her talk. She loved how he was so sweet and funny even when he's not trying to be. He was so different than any other guy in school. The perfect word to categorize Troy in one word, perfect.

She closed her eyes and went into dreamland. Dreaming of a certain blue eyed brown haired boy.

* * *

Gabriella walked stepped into the kitchen where her parents were having breakfast and coffee on the kitchen table the following morning.

Mrs. Montez pushed a chair a inches from the table. "Morning honey. Hurry up with your breakfast. I don't want you to be late."

Gabriella walked over to her to her seat and on the chair and began eating. When she finished, she stood up and walked over to the sink, dropping her plate in it. She picked up her and began to walk out of the kitchen but than she remembered to ask her parents if Troy could over to hang out. She twirled around and asked. "Hey. Can my friend Troy come over?."

"Sure, it's great that your finally bringing people over to your house. You should make more friends. Not just Betsy." Mrs. Montez smiled, taking a sip of her coffee.

"Yeah but don't do anything that I wouldn't do," Mrs. Montez warned. "You know how I feel about boys."

"Yeah, Yeah, Yeah." Gabriella rolled her eyes as she turned around to leave the house for another lonely day at school.

* * *

Gabriella slammed the locker door and turned around and leaned into the lockers as she examined the kids walking down the hallway mostly in groups of three or two. She stared at them in envy. She wished she could have a group of friends. For once, she'd like to go out and be with someone with a group of friends. But, she didn't have much friends to hang out with.

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a blonde girl wearing a pink sparkly top, a white skirt with pink heels walking by her.

Quickly she went up to her and tapped her shoulders lightly, once she turned around and saw the petite girl. Gabriella smiled shyly.

"Hi." She greeted in a small voice.

"Hello."

"Do you want to walk to homeroom with me?."

Sharpay grinned. "Sure. I'd love to."

It awkward silence for a moment before Sharpay tried to initiate a conversation.

"So, why are you so shy?." Sharpay asked.

Gabriella hated the question so much. It kind of annoyed her that people kept constantly asking that damn question.

"I'm just a shy person." She answered quietly.

" Oh, I see." Sharpay replied back.

The two girls finally entered the classroom. Gabriella fixed her eyes back on Sharpay giving her a smile. "See you later!"

Sharpay smiled as the two went their separate ways. The first person Gabriella noticed was Troy sitting in the front desk happily chatting with the bushy haired guy in the back of him. She found it really odd for Troy to be wearing a hoodie in a 85 degree weather.

Troy felt someone staring at him so he turned his gaze at the front of the classroom to notice Gabriella staring at him. She noticed that he caught her staring at him.

Gabriella blushed deep red as she went past by and sat in her seat in the back of the classroom..

Suddenly, the school's speakers screeched loudly. Everyone groaned as they covered their ears.

If there's one thing that East High needed to improve. It would be their school's speaker system.

"Good Morning Wildcats" Mr. Matsui's voice filled the room.

"The Wildcats just won their third game in a row of the season. The score was 50-36"

The students roared and clapped at the mention of the school's basketball team. At East High, the basketball team was popular. Football season wasn't nearly exciting as the school's basketball season.

"The school's decathlon will hold their first meeting next Monday March tenth, interact club will meet tomorrow after school, all spring athletic teams will have spring pictures taken friday and ACT'S practice classes will be held in the library Monday to Friday each week from 2-4 until April twenty-ninth. Well I guess that's it. I hope everyone has a wildcatastic day." Mr. Matsui finished before a loud screech filled the entire room.

"Ugh," Mrs. Darbus groaned. "I need to speak to Mr. Matsui about the loud speakers one of these days."

"Now young thespians-" Mrs. Darbus launched into a lecture.

Gabriella sighed as she put hands up to her cheeks listening to the teacher's boring lecture.

After what seemed like forever. The bell rang saving the students from Mr's Darbus's doom. The students scattered their things before rushing out of the classroom.

Before Gabriella could continue her walk down the hallway. Troy walked up behind her. "Mrs Darbus needs to stop making those boring lectures and make the class interesting somehow and some way. However, I don't think she will be able to achieve that."

Gabriella chuckled as Troy continued. "So I caught you staring at me earlier in homeroom. I see you can't get enough of me.

She blushed and didn't say anything. Troy began to tickle her which made me Gabriella scream and laugh.

The student's around them and stopped what they were doing and watched the two interact with each other and began whispering as they watched.

"Okay, you can stop now!." Gabriella said in between laughter.

"Okay." Troy obeyed removing his hands away from her.

"One question. Do you want me to ride the bus with you or do you want me to just go to your house later?."

Gabriella shrugged. "I guess you can come with me on the bus. If that would be okay with you."

"It's alright. It doesn't matter."

Troy grinned. "Well alright, i've got to make my way over to my next class. I'll meet you after school by the fountain."

Gabriella nodded "Alright. Well bye."

"Bye"

Gabriella watched him walk away. She noticed he sort of limped as he walked. She shook away her thoughts and thought nothing of it.

* * *

After school, Gabriella literally ran to the fountain in the school yard in excitement. She sat there and watched the students pour out of the school. Her hair flew in all different directions as the wind blew.

She noticed Troy walking and talking with Chad as they made their way to her. When they neared her. Chad leaned and whispered to Troy in his ear resulting a chuckle coming out of him. "I know."

"Well alright," Chad spoke as he winked at Troy. "I'll see ya tommrow."

Troy smiled and gave him a nod than Chad walked away. His attention quickly fixed at Gabriella. "Ready to go?."

Gabriella nodded as she stood up from her seat. She led Troy to her bus. She stepped on the bus and slid into the front seat as Troy sat next to her.

"Will you go out with me?." Betsy questioned as the two gazed at the brown haired girl in shock.

"Betsy, you don't even know him" Gabriella pressed her lips firmly.

"Oh, right," Betsy realized the situation. "What's your name?."

"Troy Bolton."

"Hi, my name is Betsy Mcadams. Will you go out with me?."

Troy chuckled uncomfortably as he scratched the back of his neck. "I'm sorry. But I barely even know you."

"Damn," Betsy cursed before continuing. "But you know my name!."

"Betsy, two people must get to know each other before dating each other." Gabriella explained hoping that she'd get it.

"I don't care," Betsy shot back. "He's hot."

Gabriella shook her head in annoyance. Her friend was so desperate.

"I'm sorry. Im not interested in being your boyfriend but i'd definitely love to be your friend."

Betsy sighed in disappointment. "Okay, well alright."

Troy chuckled as he initiated a conversation with Betsy as the ride continued on.

Much to Gabriella's relief, the bus came to a halt, the bus doors open. She unbuckled her seatbelt and stood up from her seat and got out of the bus. The three friends walked out of the bus. When they got to Gabriella's driveway. Betsy leaned for a hug with Troy as they said their goodbyes.

Troy and Gabriella went their way up to the front porch. She took her keys out of her pocket and put it into the lock. The doors unlocked and she flung the door open. Troy and Gabriella stepped inside the house as she shut the door behind her, locking it. They took off their shoes as Troy scanned the room around him. "Wow, it's so spacious. Damn."

"It's not that big." Gabriella responded.

Troy huffed. "Well compared to my house. It's big as hell."

Gabriella answered. "Oh. Do you wanna chill in my room or something?."

"Sure."

Gabriella led him up the stairs. When they reached the stairs, they made their way over to her room. She opened the door and walked in and closed the door."

"This is your room?" Troy asked in disbelief as he scanned around the room..

"Yup." She said as she walked over to her canopy bed and sat on it and followed behind her and sat beside her.

"Wow," He commented. His eyes grew wide as he spotted the balcony. "You got a balcony?."

"Yup."

"Damn," Troy said. "Your filthy rich."

"I wish," Gabriella replied. "We live in a middle class neighborhood so i'm not rich."

"Well to me." Troy responded.

The two became silent for a minute. "So," Gabriella spoke. "What do you want to do?."

Troy shrugged. " I don't know its your house. You pick."

"Well your the guest. You pick."

"Honestly, I don't care what we do."

"So your saying, you will let me do your makeup."

"What the fuck." Troy stared at Gabriella in horror. "Let's not get carried away here."

Gabriella laughed.

"Do you wanna play twenty questions?."

"Sure."

"Okay," Troy started thinking of a question to ask. His face lit up as he thought up of one. "What's your favorite color?."

"Pink"

Troy scrunched up his face in disgust. "That's ugly."

"No, that's you!." Gabriella giggled.

Troy looked at her, faking hurt. "And I thought we were friends."

"My turn," Gabriella cleared her throat "What is something that people don't know about you."

"Hmmm," Troy put his hand up his chin. "What people don't know about me?. Well I can sing."

Gabriella grinned. "Oh i'd love to hear you sing."

"In your dreams, little girl."

"Please?"

"Nuh-uh"

"Why not?."

"I don't sing in front of people."

"Well i'll sing if you sing."

"Really?"

"Hell no"

"Well I guess you don't want me to sing than."

"I want to. Really badly."

"Well too bad"

"Fuck you"

"Yeah. I know you want to fuck me. I'm so good looking."

"Your so cocky.

"My turn to ask a question. What is something people don't know about you?."

"i write poems and stories."

Troy looked at her in surprise. "Really?. Can I see it?."

"Maybe," Gabriella replied. "Next time."

"Okay, fine."

"Now it's my turn." Gabriella questioned. "What is the worst thing that happened to you?."

Troy was silent for a minute which kind of scared Gabriella for a moment. His eyes gazed at Gabriella before speaking. "The worst thing that happened to me was when my mom died when I was 15."

Gabriella's eyes widened in shock. "Oh my gosh. I'm so sorry, Troy."

"It's okay." Troy replied back, his eyes filling with sadness at the thought of his mother.

"May I ask you what happened?."

"Well, my mom had lung cancer. She was diagnosed when I was 13. On my 15th birthday, she had a doctor's appointment and she found out that her body stopped responding to treatment so a month later, she passed away on Thanksgiving. Her body couldn't keep fighting anymore."

"Oh my gosh. I'm sorry about your mother." Gabriella apologized.

"It's alright. It's my turn to ask a question." Troy changed the subject.

"Okay," Troy said. "What do you want to be when you grow up."

"A writer."

"Interesting"

"My turn," Gabriella responded. "Who have you had a crush on?."

"Sharpay Evans." Troy responded

"Ohh. I know her. We're friends." Gabriella squealed.

"Nice."

"Yeah."

"So do you have any siblings?." Troy asked,

"Yeah. I have a brother but he ran away and never came back. He was sort of a trouble maker. One night, he got into an argument because he was caught doing drugs. My parents had enough of him so they told him they were gonna send him to a boarding school for troubled teens."

"I'm sorry," He apologized, sympathy dripping in his voice.

"It's okay."

"How old is he?."

"13." Gabriella answered.

"Damn," Troy said wistfully. "That is messed up."

"I mean he's fourteen." Gabriella mumbled embarrassed. She mentally smacked herself for being dumb in front of Troy."

"She's slow." Troy whispered to himself.

Gabriella felt a sting in her eye, she felt like she wanted to cry. No matter how hard she tried to show that she wasn't dumb. It failed. No matter how much it hurt her, she pretended like it didn't bother her. She wished she was born normal. Maybe than everybody would like and accept her for who she is.

Troy glanced at his watch and his face formed into a panic expression. "Shit!" He cursed.

Troy stood up from the bed and apologized. "Sorry, Im supposed to be home by four. I need to get going."

"It's alright," Gabriella faked a smile hiding the hurt from her voice. "I guess i'll see you tomorrow."

He leaned in and hugged her which made Gabriella forget about what he whispered about her. Her heart skipped a beat, and she felt goosebumps all over her skin. She felt so right and safe in his arms. She swore that she could feel the electricty go through her skin as he touched her.

Troy pulled apart from the hug and smiled at her before zooming out of the room. A minute later, she could hear the front door slam shut.

Gabriella sighed. She fell back in the bed, feeling depressed and hurt again. Why did she have to be dumb?. Why couldn't she be someone smart and not be slow?.

She stood up from her bed and walked out of the room. As she walked into the hallway, she opened the bathroom door with only one thing in her mind. One thing that could only make her feel better. Gabriella closed the door behind her and locked it. She opened the drawer and took out the silver knife that she felt like was her best friend these days.

She closed the drawers and sat on the floor, curling up into a ball. Gabriella stared at the silver object. A voice in her head told her not to do it. But another voice told her to do it. She fiddled with the knife wanting to be normal. That's all she ever wanted. To be like the rest of her classmates.

She thrust her knife into her skin making deep red lines. If people knew about her dark secret. She didn't care. She wanted to die. Nobody would care if she did anyway. Gabriella placed the knife on the floor and cried.

Nobody cared about her. Nobody loved her. They all thought she was dumb. She wished she wasn't. She wished she was smart and a incredible girl. But of course, she would have to accept reality.

She stood up from the floor, wiping away her tears, she picked up the knife and placed it on the drawer and closed it.

Gabriella stared into the reflection of her mirror. Oh how she wished she was beautiful like some of her classmates. No wonder why guys didn't like her. She was ugly. She put her hand in the mirror where her face was reflecting.

She whispered. "Your ugly, nobody likes you, your worthless, your a piece of shit, your stupid, your retarded, your ugly. Everybody hates you. You have no friends. You will always be a failure."

Tears began to fall down her cheeks. Just once, she wished she could be normal.

* * *

**A/N Well this was a weird but yet sad chapter. Thoughts anyone?. Please click on the purple button and tell me your thoughts. You know you want to. :D :D :D ;D**

**March 7th was the day was the BAN THE R WORD day. Schools around the country pledged to not say the R word. Now you can too!. Just go to http:/www. SPREAD THE WORD TO END THE WORD!.**

**When they were originally introduced, the terms "mental retardation" or "mentally retarded" were medical terms with a specifically clinical connotation; however, the pejorative forms, "retard" and "retarded" have been used widely in today's society to degrade and insult people with intellectual disabilities. Additionally, when "retard" and "retarded" are used as synonyms for "dumb" or "stupid" by people without disabilities, it only reinforces painful stereotypes of people with intellectual disabilities being less valued members of humanity.**

**PS. That goes for calling people slow and dumb. It hurts don't do that.**

**SPREAD THE WORD TO END THE WORD**!


	7. Why?

**Love and Acceptence**

**Disclaimer: If i owned HSM, i wouldn't be here.**

**A/N I'm extremely i haven't updated since March. I don't have a really good reason. Well most of my reason was procrastinating. Yes, i'm a very lazy person and i'm sorry for that. It's also partly due to fliming and editing videos on my Youtube Channel which is 7blackberry2pinkstar. And than there's the ACT'S i had to study my ass for. Not fun at all. But im back and with school year drawing to a close in just a matter of weeks, i will defnitely have more time in the summer to continue updating this story. Now that everything is back in full swing, i'll maybe end the story by the summer comes to an end and hopefully, i can begin work on a new story that i will come up with. Before i can conclude this author's note, i would like to say that reading your reviews touched my heart. It made me feel warm inside. I almost teared at your reviews. I am SO happy that you can relate to this story. There's a reason why i came up with the story. It was too help kids who are going through what Gabriella is going though and to show you that you are NOT alone. Just because you have a learning disablity doesn't make you much less diffrent than other kids. We are all tecnhnically the same, we poop, we pee, we cry and we laugh. But yet, every person is diffrent in some special way. I also wanted to give readers to step into a kid like Gabriella's shoes and see what its like to like literally have no friends in high school, to be made fun of and to be thought of as retarded, dumb and whatnot. Just because you think a person isn't smart or is slow doesn't mean that their not going to be a good friend to you or a good person as a whole. I firmly beleive everyone has something good about themselves and to offer something good. I just wish people would give people a chance. See what's good in them and not focus on the negatives. We can't help what we are. It's not our choice to be the way we are. There's a reason why god made us the way we are and there's a reason why god put you in this earth. Just look for the purpose. I am too still trying to find my purpose in my life. But until than, i'll stay strong even though i don't want to be.**

* * *

Gabriella walked into Mrs. Darbus's the next morning. She was tired for it was too early in the morning.

When she entered the room, she noticed an empty desk in front of Chad. Usually, when she got to the classroom, Troy would usually be occupied in the seat. But today was different.

She walked to the back of the room and sat in the last row of desks in the room. The bell finally rung, the room grew silent when Mrs. Darbus smacked the ruler against the unoccupied desk.

Mrs. Darbus cleared her throat. "Now that I have your full attention. I want to talk to you about the ACT'S which will be taken in the last week of April."

The class groaned.

"The English, Math and Science department will be holding free ACT tutoring after school in the libary from Monday to Friday, 2-4 pm. The students helping out will offer snacks such as coffee, cakes, doughnuts and other pastries. So if yourr interested, please let me know and i'll sign you up. The tutoring sessions will begin next Monday and will be available for two weeks up until the last week of April. Now any questions?"

A dark skinned girl raised up her hand and cleared her throat.

"Yes Mrs. Mckessie."

"Who will be tutoring the students?" The girl questioned.

"Ahh, good question," Mrs. Darbus answers. "Mr. C from the math department, Mrs. Allen from the science department and Mrs. K from the english department will be tutoring you all."

"Oh"

"Anymore questions?." Mrs. Darbus calls out than waits for someone to ask a question but nobody does. "Very well than. I will let you all talk as i finish some paperwork."

The homeroom teacher walked back in front of the classroom and begins doing her paperwork as the class chatters.

"Gabriella." Mrs. Darbus called out.

No movement was made. She stood frozen in her seat. She hated when she had get up in front of the class. Gabriella hated the attention was on her. It made her feel really nervous and insecure.

"Gabriella."

Gabiella looked down at her desk wishing she wasn't called up to go to Mrs. Darbus. It made her feel nervous when all eyes were on her.

"Gabriella"

She sighed and slowly got from her seat and made her way over to Mrs. Darbus. In her mind, she repeated a sentence in her mind as a distraction to keep her focus away from all the kids stares and whispers.

_I hate my life. I wanna commit suicide._ She kept repeating in her head as she moved her feet down the steps of the theatre like classroom.

"She's scared of you!" A student called out jokingly.

"C'mon, Gabriella. There's nothing to worry about. I don't bite." Mrs. Darbus teased.

She let out a soft giggle as the teacher went back to working on papers. Gabriella watched her go through papers, scribbling and murmuring to herself. She stood there awkwardly for about a minute before the teacher realized that the tiny girl was still standing right in front of her.

"Oh, sorry," She'd apologized picking up a piece of paper and handing it to her.

She took the paper and went back into her seat. Gabriella glanced at the piece of paper and noticed it was field trip permission for special ed students to go visit a community college somewhere in Albuquerque.

Frowning,she crumpled the paper in her hands and shoved it inside her brown fringe bag. Gabriella didn't want to attend a community college for she wanted to prove everyone that she could become successful and go to a four year college. If she went to a two year college than she would feel like a failure. Most of the kids who slacked in school ends going to community college. Everybody thought that Gabriella was too dumb to be successful in life and because of that she wanted to prove everyone wrong. But deep in her heart, she knew in her heart that she wasn't cut out for a university considering that she wasn't the brightest tool in the tool box.

A few inches away from her desk, she heard two kids talking and suddenly, she heard her name involved in the conversation.

"Hey, dude. Is Gabriella retarded?. Not to be mean or anything." A cute blonde haired blue eyed boy commented. "But I heard from a couple of people that she really is retarded."

Gabriella felt her eyes well up. She closed her eyes and put her head down to prevent the tears welling up. She couldn't believe that kids in her class thought she was mentally retarded. Sure she thought kids thought that already but still it hurt. She wished she wasn't viewed as a less valued member of society. Gabriella wished she was a normal person who was smart, funny and outgoing just like her cousin. Maybe than kids would like her and accept her for who she is. Maybe she would have true friends that way.

The bell rung and Gabriella had never been so relieved to hear the bell ring. She stood up from her seat, picked up her bag and ran out of the classroom.

She ran down the hallway, bumping into people in the midst of her run but didn't care. All Gabriella wanted was to go disappear and never come back. She pushed the girls bathroom door open, scurried in and went inside a bathroom stall. She slammed the bathroom stall shut, locked it, slid into the ground, curled up in a ball and cried her eyes out.

She kept on crying enabling her to let out all her demons out. Gabriella felt the urge to cut. She didn't care if she cut herself to death. No one would care anyway. They would all think she was a stupid girl and that she was dumb for doing that and carried on with their lives.

The bell rung alerting Gabriella that she was late for class. But for once in her life. She didn't care anymore. Gabriella just wanted to die knowing that she wasn't worth anything.

She cried nonstop for about 15 minutes. She would stop and than start crying within seconds feeling depressed all over again.

Suddenly, the bathroom door flung open and she heard the sound of heels hitting the floor.

Gabriella's sobs grew louder not caring if anyone was in the bathroom. She was stuck in a misery bubble and didn't care about anyone or anything. All she cared about was the suicide that she will someday commit.

She stared beneath the bathroom stall and saw the heels nearing her stall which frightened her causing her to cry quietly.

"Gabriella?"

A startled Gabriella nearly jumped up from the floor, her eyes widened as it gazed beneath the bathroom floor. There she spotted the bubbly blonde peeking into her stall.

She flushed with embarrassment, her cheeks turning bright red.

"I'm sorry if I startled you but I heard crying and I was curious to see who was crying but than I saw you." Sharpay explained.

Gabriella was a little bit freaked out that her friend would check beneath occupied bathroom stalls making her quite uncomfortable.

"It's okay. " She whispered, keeping her gaze at the floor avoiding the blonde's bright curious eyes.

"Are you okay," Sharpay questioned. "What happened?."

"Nothing!" Gabriella whispered audibly keeping her gaze still.

"Bullshit," Sharpay shrieked. "Come out of the damn bathroom stall and tell me what the fuck happened and who I gotta kill."

She sighed as she slowly stood up from the floor, she put her fingers through the lock hesitating for a bit.

Would Sharpay understand what she was going through. Would Sharpay still want to be her friend despite how slow and dumb she is?. All these questions ran through the back of her mind. She stood there asking questions in her mind with no answers.

Sharpay tapped her foot impatiently. "C'mon. I'm waiting."

She took a deep breath, closing her eyes to calm herself down. Once she opened them realizing how nice it would be to have a true friend for once. How nice it would be to go out and hang out with a friend without feeling sad or getting your feelings hurt. How nice it would be to be carefree and happy.

She unlocked the bathroom stall ready to open her heart out. Gabriella hoped that maybe sharing her feelings would make them become even close and best of all best friends.

Gabriella opened the bathroom door and dragged her feet out of the stall.

"Spill." Sharpay crossed her arms, tapping her foot on the floor.

"I don't know if I should because-"

"Talk." Sharpay interrupted.

She took a deep breath, she pulled out her notebook, flipped to a empty page and scribbled down what she wanted to say but was too scared to say it out loud. Gabriella sighed as she thrust it into the blonde's hands.

Sharpay scanned the page and became silent for a minute before speaking up. "Gabriella. Your not retarded. Trust me. If anything, their the ones that are retarded. Have they ever had at least one conversation with you?."

Gabriella shook her head.

"Exactly. I hate people who judge people without getting to know them. I think people should learn to love one another and not judge. You know what they say, 'Variety is a spice of life." Sharpay continued.

Gabriella smiled. "Yeah, that's like my pet peeve right there."

Sharpay grabbed Gabriella's arm and wrapped it around her own arm. "Don't you ever think that your retarded because your not. Now let's get to class before we get a detention."

Gabriella stopped a few inches away from the bathrook door. She gazed at Sharpay's face before speaking "Thanks"

Sharpay glanced back at her. "For what?."

"For being there for me even though we just started talking and stuff."

She grinned pulling Gabriella out of the bathroom and into the hallway. "What are friends for?"

Both girls walked down the hallway talking and laughing about whatever what was going in their lives. Deep down, Gabriella could tell that this was a start of a beautiful best friendship.

* * *

The next morning, Gabriella was much in a happier mood because of Sharpay from the previous day. It was good to know that had her back but still couldn't but feel like a loser since it was only her one true friend in school.

She held her poem notebook against her chest observing the kids in groups gossiping and laughing. She wished she could have a group of friends that would be there for her. But she was forever grateful that she had Sharpay by her side.

Gabriella opened the door and stepped inside the classroom. First thing she noticed was Troy sitting in his chair engaged into a conversation with Chad wearing a hoodie again now in a 90 degree weather.

She found it a bit odd to be wearing a hoodie in this type of weather. So far nobody in school was wearing a long sleeved top, hoodie or sweatshirt. As for as the school code goes, you weren't allowed to wear spaghetti strap tank and booty shorts but of course the students didn't really care about the school code. The teacher's didn't seem to mind except for the school deans.

She walked towards the desks and Troy stopped talking and glanced towards Gabriella, grinning and winking. She smiled back as her cheeks turned into a shade of a red rose.

Gabriella slid herself into the seat. The bell finally rung. She opened her notebook and flipped to an empty page and wrote her thoughts from pen to paper.

_I searched everywhere in hopes of finding for a hand to hold._

_Little did I know, i'd see your face_

_I didn't know how much you would make me feel_

_I didn't know how much you would mean the world to me._

_If only you would tell me how you really feel_

_Than we'd conquer the world together_

_But Little did I know that I would discover you_

She frowned as she read the poem and over again. Gabriella felt that her poem was horrible. She wished she would be a better talented poem writer like Emily Dickson for that matter. Gabriella knew that she would nowhere become as good as her's. Her writing ability wasn't good at all in fact, her poem writing skills sucked. But it made her feel better. It was very therapeutic for her to write her inner emotions down. Without writing, she didn't know what she would do without it. It was her life. Despite her horrible writing skills. She loved writing. It was something that she was really passionate about.

The bell finally rung, pulling Gabriella out of her thoughts. She shut her notebook, picked up her bag, stood up from her seat and left the classroom.

"I see you writing in that notebook of yours everyday. I wanna see what you write." A voice behind her spoke.

Starteled, Gabriella nearly jumped out of her skin as she twirled around facing a brown haired blue eyed boy giving her a toothy grin.

"You scared the living shit out of me!" Gabriella inhaled.

Troy laughed. "Legit, that made my day."

Aggravated, Gabriella punched him in the stomach. "Not cool dude."

His laughing stopped as soon as Gabriella punched him. He winced,clenching his fists together, closing his eyes inhaling than exhaling.

Gabriella's eyed widened at his body language. "Oh my god, I didn't mean for it to hurt that badly. I'm so sorry."

He opened his blue eyes and stared at the tiny brunette. "Oh no!. Don't beat yourself up for it. I wasn't hurt because of your weak ass punch." He teased slightly.

Gabriella put the notebook into her bag and crossed her arms, giving him a look. "Than what is it?."

"I uh," He scratched the back of his neck nervously."Gotta go" He raced away from Gabriella.

"What the hell." She muttered under her breath

Troy was acting even more weird than usual. Something inside her told her that there was something going on with him and that was something she was going to find out.

* * *

**A/N Well I guess that's it for the most part.I know this chapter is extremely short. I intended for the chapter to be longer than this but I figured if I added more stuff than it would lose the vision I was holding for the chapter. I was going to add more scenes that involved Gabriella and Betsy's friendship but than I wanted to focus more on Troyella and Sharpay and Gabriella's involving friendship in this chapter. I'm not too thrilled the way it turned out to be. But i'm not going to redit it because at the same time, i'm okay with the material I wrote for this chapter im just not thrilled the way it turned out. Hopefully the chapter wasn't too boring to read. Lol. Well click that purple button and tell me what you think. I'd love to hear your thoughts.**

**PS. Now that Zac and Vanessa are no dating and that Austin Butler from Zoey 101 and Vanessa are dating each other. What do you think of the couple. I prefer Vanessa with Zac but to me, I think Vanessa seems much happier than she did with Zac. What do you all think?**


	8. Are You Worth Suffering For?

**Love And Acceptence**

**A/N: Reading your reviews made my smile. It makes my day when I get your review alerts in my inbox. Going through a rough day at school and than coming home to your wonderful reviews made me really happy. I'm going through some tough shit right now and this is very therapeutic for me to write and it lets me unleash my inner demons and enables to write characters that's based on some people in my life. This chapter is dedicated to my faithful reviewers on this story. I love you all.**

* * *

"Gabriella, how did you get 24?. 5 times 2 is 10 so that's going to be the answer for the square." Mr. C explained.

She flushed with embarrassment. She was too stuck in her own world to pay attention to the math problem and too dumb to notice the basic math problem. She knew the answer to 5 times 2. It was that just she didn't realize that she typed 12 times 2 into her calculator. Gabriella mentally hit her head, completely embarrassed that she looked like an idiot to her geometry teacher.

The teacher pursed his lips together and stared at her for a while than proceeded back to his desk Gabriella's aid walked up to Mr. C and covered her head with the paper and whispered something into the teacher's ears.

Mr. C nodded. "She's stupid."

I seriously am going to kill myself by the time I turn 18. She thought to herself.

"Not good at math, huh?" Sharpay spoke with a smirk on her face.

"I suck at it. " She mumbled as she put her head down in embarrassment, the tears threatening to fall

"It's okay," Sharpay replied. "Gabriella, I'm not good at math either so don't fret about it!."

Gabriella sighed as she stood up from her chair, picking up her quiz and handing it to the teacher before she scurried off to her desk to lay her head down to hide from her embarrassment and the world.

Before she knew, it the bell rang. She stood up from her seat and scurrying to her English class. For the last 10 minutes of class, she fiddled in her seat, glancing at the clock hoping for the class to end. She needed to pee really bad but she was too scared to raise her hand in front of the class and ask to go to the bathroom because if she did than everyone's attention would fix on her. Gabriella hated attention.

She sighed and turned her gaze toward her aid who sat next to her. "Um, may I go the bathroom?"

Her aid, Mrs. Shelly glanced up from her piece of paper and answered with a warm smile. "Sure. Do you have your assignment notebook?."

Gabriella nodded as she opened her bag than fished for the assignment book. Once she found it, she handed to her aid who signed it than gave it back to her. She picked up her bag and stood up from her seat and headed out of the classroom.

She walked down the empty hallway, enjoying the silence. The silent moment was just too peaceful. If only life could be peaceful than maybe, just maybe she would be finally happen. But she knew life wouldn't work that way. Life wasn't fair. She had to learn it the hard way.

When she got into the bathroom, she did her business and flushed the toilet. She sighed deeply and leaned against the bathroom stall. She closed her eyes, pretending to be in a world where everybody liked her. Where she was beautiful, smart and with an amazing, funny, fun and outgoing personality. She dreamed that she was a normal person who was happy. She opened her eyes to reality Gabriella wished, prayed and hoped that one day that she would be loved and accepted.

She opened the stall and noticed her best friend washing her hands. She walked up to the sink, lifted the faucet and let the fingers run through the water "Hi Betsy!"

"Hi"

The bell rang and she quickly grabbed the paper towel to dry her hands. "Bye"

She quickly ran to the bathroom door, pushed it open and heard a bang. Her eyes widened as Betsy ran up behind her to see who she bumped the door to.

She walked out of the bathroom door and her eyes met with a pair of ocean blue eyes.

"Oh my god, Troy!" She breathed. " I'm so so sorry!"

Troy rubbed his head, smiling. "It's alright."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, i'm okay" He reassured her.

"Okay" She smiled. "That's good.

He noticed a brown haired, brown eyed girl standing next to her.

"Who's this beautiful young lady?" He winked at Gabriella's friend.

Betsy giggled. "My name is Betsy. What's yours?"

"My name's Troy" He winked again. "Troy Bolton"

She giggled again.

Gabriella rolled her eyes at her boy crazy friend. She loved her friend but her boy craziness can be slightly annoying.

"What grade are you in?" Betsy bats her eyelashes.

"I'm a junior."Troy answered. " What about you?."

"I'm a freshmen" Betsy smiled..

"Well," Troy replied. "A high-spirited newbie. I miss being one of those people"

Betsy's smile turned into a confused facial expression. "What does high-spirited mean?"

"It means full of energy." Troy answered.

"Oh"

Betsy launched into a weird story as Troy chuckled and made little comments in between.

Her friend grabbed his arm and walked away with him laughing at Troy's jokes. Gabriella felt a pang of jealousy as she watched the two walk down the hallway chattering and laughing. She had a feeling, her friend was starting to like her crush. If Troy asked her out, which she knew would never happen. Gabriella wouldn't go out with him because it was wrong to go out with a guy who you knew your friend liked. Her friend's happiness was first before hers and that was something she wanted.

* * *

When school ended, Gabriella gathered her stuff from her locker and went to the after school concession stand in the school cafeteria where teachers would serve snacks and drinks for students who have after school activities to hold on to until dinnertime. She grabbed a yummy blueberry slushi than headed towards the bus.

As soon as she got to the bus, a voice shrieks. "Oh my gosh."

Gabriella sighed and sat down in her seat as Betsy grabbed the drink from her hands.

"We'll share" She was about to take a sip until Gabriella snatched the drink away from her.

"That's disgusting. I don't drink or eat off of any people's food and drinks." Gabriella scrunched up her face in disgust.

"I hate her." Betsy mumbled under her breath.

Gabriella wanted to slap the living crap out of her friend. Clearly, she didn't know how to understand anything and the fact that she was the most ignorant girl ever. It wasn't polite to take people's food and drinks away from them and indulge them without even asking. It was rude and ignorant.

"Please, please, please. I'm just gonna drink from the cup." Her friend begged, shaking her shoulders.

Annoyed, Gabriella gave up her delicious slushi to her friend so she would stop. "Here, you can have it."

"Thank you!." She squealed delightfully.

She formed a small smile. "Your welcome."

"Oh yeah, your guy friend is hot," Betsy spoke in between sips of her slushi. "I wanna go ask him out."

"You barely even know him," Gabriella rolled her eyes. "Your supposed to get to know a guy first before you go out with someone. It's called common sense, Betsy"

"I know a few things about him!"

"Really?. Like what?."

"His name is Troy!"

"Wow, You really know him. It's like you've known him for years. Good for you!" Gabriella replied sarcastically.

"Well, what do you know about him?." Betsy challenged her.

"His favorite color is blue, his favorite food is pizza, he hates homework," Gabriella lists. "And more stuff that I can't tell you."

"What stuff?." Betsy asks, fishing for some juicy information.

"Sorry," Gabriella answered. "I can't tell you!"

Her friend sighed and turned to her other friend who sat across from the two and engaged in a conversation.

She asked herself a question that she didn't know the answer to it._ Are you worth suffering for?._

* * *

Gabriella walked into the cafeteria, lunch bag in hand, scanned for a empty table to sit at since Betsy wasn't in school today. Truth be told, she was really relieved because than she wouldn't hear the word "dumb" multiple times. It was like a vacation in paradise for a day.

At last, she finally found a empty table, scurried hurriedly before anyone could take her spot. She slid down in her seat, opened the lunch bag and unwrapped her peanut butter sandwich. But before she could take a bite, she heard a boy clear his throat.

She looked up from her sandwich and found herself staring at two ocean blue eyes.

Troy smiled. "May I sit?"

"Sure" She commented before diving into her sandwich.

"Well someone's hungry." Troy joked.

Gabriella chucked after she swallowed. "Well, what can I say?. I love to eat."

"Your not the only one." Troy replied taking a big bite of his burger.

She stared at Troy's lunch tray in disbelief. "What the fuck. You have enough food to feed two people"

Troy had a cheeseburger, four pieces of chicken nuggets, fries, cole slaw, chips, chocolate chip cookie & a coke.

He smirked. "What can I say?. I need this. I'm a growing boy!."

"How can you grow with all that junk your putting into you body?"

"I hate healthy food well except for cole slaw. It's the only type of salad I eat anyway." He responded before finishing up his burger than proceeding to dig into his cole slaw.

She shook her head and grabbed his cookie up from his tray and took a big bite. Troy's eyes widened. "What the fuck. The cookie was the best part of my meal."

"You don't need the cookie anyway. Your already eating so much junk. I saved you from eating suger which is also bad for you too."

"And do I look like I care?" Troy shot back than smiled evilly.

"Yes you should-" Gabriella started to say but Troy grabbed her sandwich and took a big bite of it preventing from finishing her sentence.

"Fuck You. Now what the hell am I gonna eat?"

"That's what you get cookie monster" He stuck out his tongue.

"Food Stealer!."

"Cookie Monster."

"Bad food eater."

'The fuck."

"Shut The fuck up."

"Ha,I win."

"Shut up before I fucking punch you in the fucking face"

"Ohh i'm scared. I want my mommy. Please, don't hurt me"

Annoyed, Gabriella curled her hand into a ball and lightly threw her hand against Troy's shoulder.

Troy jumped back, wicning and holding his shoulder in pain.

"Oh my god, I didn't mean to hurt you that hard. I didn't think I was capable enough to actually do damage." Gabriella apologized panicking.

"It's okay. It's all good." He reassured, trying not to show that he was in pain.

"Lemme see your shoulder." Gabriella trying to roll up the long sleeve of his sweater.

Troy eyes widened and moved further away from Gabriella "No, no. I'm fine"

Gabriella scooted closer to Troy. "Bullshit." She rolled up his sleeve as Troy squirmed. She gasped as she saw a blue, purplish bruise on his shoulder."

"Oh my god, Troy." Her voice croaked out. "I didn't hit that hard. Did I?. Oh my god, I did.. I am so sorry!

Gabriella was too busy making a fuss out of Troy's bruise that she didn't notice that he seemed to calm down.

"It's okay, Gabriella, It's not like it's the end of the world. I have a big bruise?. So what?. It's not that much of a big deal. It'll go away.

"B-but I feel so bad" Gabriella stammered, feeling guilty.

"Hey," His voice lowered, "look at me"

She looked into his eyes as he continued. "You didn't inflict that much damage All you did was make a bruise. Please don't blame yourself."

She sighed. "Okay, fine. But I still feel bad."

"It's alright. Can we please stop talking about this?"

"I don't know if I can. I should probably take you to the nurses office or something."

Troy sighed and began to tickle her. She shrieked and laughed. "Troy, stop it!"

"Not unless if you forget about what happened."

"I can't"

"Well than, I guess i'm going to have to find your tickle spot." He grinned, tickling her neck.

Gabriella kept laughing, screaming and moving to the extent where her head hit his chin. She moved centimeters away from his head. Her eyes now fixed on his eyes. The two gazed at each other for a moment. He stopped tickling her as soon as her eyes landed on his. Gabriella felt goosebumps jump through her skin.

The bell startled the two and realized what position they were currently in.

The two jerked away from each other immediately. "Um, I gotta go jet." He mumbled awkawrdly picking up his things.

"Yeah, me too." She said quietly, feeling embarrassed and awkward at to what just happened.

She collected her things and ran as far as she can from Troy, forgetting to throw away her lunch. But at the moment, she didn't care for she was too embarrassed at what happened. But she knew in her heart that it felt so right. If she could, she would stare into those beautiful blue eyes all day

Today was a day that she would never forget. Today was the day that she fell in love with Troy Alexander Bolton.

* * *

**A/N That was so cute!. It was so fun and cute to write. Well at least, the last scene was. Anyway, I hope you love this chapter. I would like to apologize for taking too long to write this chapter. I was busy last month but than July came and I had a writers block and procrastinated too much. Truth be told, I had a different concept on how the chapter was supposed to end. But I just logged on into my computer, clicked on the documents and clicked this document and began writing away. I drilled ideas into my head as I wrote. So this was completely unexpected. But i'm happy with the way it ended. In fact, I wasn't originally going to finish writing this chapter. I intended to browse the internet but than I thought about this story and decided to continue writing despite the fact I had no idea. I read the part where I left off and just typed whatever my mind had to offer. But anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I did writing it. So can you do me a little favor and click the review button on the bottom of the page?. I would be very much happy if you did. I wanna know what you think about this chapter. A review is pretty much needed.**


	9. For The Worst

**Love And Acceptence**

**Disclaimer: If I owned HSM than I wouldn't be writing this story, now would I?**

**A/N I would like to thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I love hearing your feedback. Now, most of you know, I had gotten a laptop last christmas and it's really hard to get back into a swing of things. Back than, was my first priority and so I kept updating and updating. But then the virus hid all my files, and so I wasn't able to update any more stories which I think lasted for a year and a half.I was 11 when I first start reading and 12 when I began writing my first hit story Stranger and so on. Now with the virus that happened and gettingless popular, my priorities changed. When I got my laptop, I find that I tend to procasinate more. Now that i'm older, i'm 17 now. I have more things to do like college applications,jobs and my primary focus concerning the internet, my Youtube Fashion channel where I am a fashion guru giving out fashion tips like that. If you interested in that, my username is 7blackberry2pinkstar. I started this story when I was a freshmen and i'm currently a senior. I am determined to finish this story by the time I graduate. This story has beenwith me all through high school. I would like to finish high school and this story to open a new chapter in life in both my personal life and internet life as i'mopen to writing more fanfictions and of course, Youtube. But as of right now, Love and Acceptence is the thing i'm working. Hopefully, I can get this story finished by then. I'm going to shut up because I know you don't want to read my rant. Let's get on with this story.**

* * *

Gabriella splashed her face with water as she rinsed out the from her face. She shut the faucet, letting the drain soak up all the water. She grabbed a face towel and rubbed her face with it than she threw it away.

She looked at her face reflecting on the mirror. She couldn't stop thinking about what happened earlier in the afternoon. The scene kept replaying in her mind and over. They were tickling each other until their faces were centimeters apart. Was Troy gonna kiss her?. Who was she kidding?. She knew Troy would never like a dumb girl like her. He thinks she's slow so that pretty much summed everything up.

Gabriella sighed. She wished she would find someone, at least one person who would accept for who she was?. She eyed the drawer underneath the sink. She had been craving that one red line of skin that would ooze out blood for the past few days. She opened the drawer taking out that silver knife. She shut the drawer shut and sat down on the floor. Gabriella took the sleeves of her black Victoria Secret hoodie off from her arm.

She closed her eyes, letting the coldness of the knife swipe through her skin creating a deep red thick line. She opened her eyes and grinned. She watched the knife come in contact with her skin creating a second deep red line underneath the first line she had created. Satisfaction rushed through her viens. Ending her craving, she created a third red line and placed the knife back to it's designated hiding spot. She pulled her sleeves over her wrist and stood up from her.

She turned off the lights, walked out of the bathroom, entered her bedroom and slammed the door behind her. She collapsed in her bed, enjoying the feeling of warmth and comfort. A sudden thought went through her head. Was she physio for self-mutilating herself?.

_Probably_ She thought to herself.

Gabriella didn't care. As long as it made her happy and it was therapeutic in a way. It was a way for her to show shame of she was and look for instant gratification. She turned off the lights and snuggled into her bed getting shunning out her problems and the world

* * *

_Riiiiiiiiing_

Gabriella slammed her locker, sighing, walking to her first class of the day. She was in her pink and yellow floral black dress, wedges. She kept her curls natural and wore light makeup like pink lip gloss,eyeliner and mascara. The reason as to why she got all dolled up was for Troy.

"Woah there, sexy!" Her blonde friend grinned in her pink juicy couture tracksuit and white sneakers. Her shiny blonde hair was up in a bun.

"Hey, Sharpay" She greeted.

"Ready for Darbus?" She questioned.

"Hell no!" The girls giggled.

"Damn," A deep masculine voice spoke up from behind her. "What's the occasion here?. A birthday party or something?."

Gabriella turned around to find no other than a smiling Troy Bolton dressed in a black t-shirt, blue jeans and converse. She kept staring at him for at least 30 seconds. He looked so cute in his outfit.

"Slow" Troy mumbled under his breath when he noticed Gabriella staring at him

The word hurt her like a bee stinging a part of your skin. She shook her thoughts from her head. "N-nothing" She stammered, feeling hurt and embarrassed.

"Than why are you all dressed up for?"

"I'm a girl,i love clothes and makeup," She spoke, her voice getting sharper. "Do the math."

He chuckled. "Well alrighty than"

"Hoops!" Chad called out "Basketball meeting now in the gym pronto. Coach gave Darbus a heads up"

Troy sighed. "Well duty calls. I'll catch up with you later!"

When Troy was out of sight, out of nowhere, Sharpay started singing. "You like him, you like him, you like him"

"Shut the fuck up," Gabriella playfully slapped her friend's arm. "No, I don't"

Sharpay huffed. "Puh-lease. I saw you stare at him. Gabs. Don't lie to me woman."

Gabriella frowned, denying the fact that she loved Troy. "I don't like Troy!"

"Yes, you do!"

"No, I don't

"No, I don't, my ass"

"C'mon Sharpay. Just let it go"

"Are you hinting at me or something?"

"C'mon Sharpay. We're gonna be late if you don't stop blabbing your mouth with nonsense words"

"You like him. Admit it"

"Sharpay, we're gonna be late!"

"Not unless if you admit you like him"

"I don't. I'm not gonna admit something when it's not true.

"My ass"

"Sharpay!

The blonde girl quickly blocked the door to prevent Gabriella from entering.. "Quit it" Gabriella snapped.

"Admit it."

"I don't like him."

"Yes, you do."

"No,i don't."

"Yes, you do."

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you do."

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you do."

"No, I don't."

"Yes, you do."

"Oh my god!"

"Just admit."

"I don't like Troy"

"Yes, you do. Stop denying it."

"I don't like Troy, however, I do, in fact, love him"

"Oh my gosh," Sharpay squealed. "I knew you liked him. But I didn't know you love him!"

"Well, I do, okay," She admitted. "But do not go blabbing it around to people."

"I promise."

The two girl shared a smile before entering homeroom to start their day at school. Unknowingly, a random girl creeped out from the corner of the hallway looking shocked.

* * *

When school was over, Gabriella walked towards her bus and spotted Troy and Betsy standing in front of the bus just casually chatting.

She felt a twinge of jealousy. It was hard not to be jealous of Troy hanging out with another girl when he's got the whole school's female population head over heels in love with him.

She reached the front of the bus and Troy noticed her presence. "Oh, hey. Gabriella!"

"Hey!"

"I have a question."

"Yea, sure,"Gabriella wondered what it was." Go ahead."

"Do you wanna hang out at the mall with me after school?. That is, if you don't have any plans." He asked, his blue eyes winning her over.

"Of course, " Gabriella accepted. "I just gotta go home and ask my parents first."

"Okay, well text me, if you can."

"Can I come too?." Betsy spoke up.

Gabriella's eyes glanced at Troy who stared back at her as if he didn't want her friend to go. "Um, I don't know, if you can."

"Please,please, please." Betsy begged, shaking her friend with all her might.

"All right, you can." Gabriella gave up.

"Sorry" She mouthed at Troy.

"It's okay" He mouthed back before walking away.

The two friends hopped on the bus and sat on a vacant seat. Betsy kept talking about how she was so excited for the mall. "We should do our hair, nails and makeup before when we go to the mall and we'll buy a tons of stuff."

Gabriella faked a smile. "Yeah!." She didn't want her friend to go. Not that she didn't like her friend. But she hoped she would have a one on one time with Troy again. She was also sick and tired of Betsy muttering "Dumb" and "Slow" for the stupidest things when she was slow too. All she wanted was a night was a night where didn't have to hear those words. But than again, Troy thought she was dumb and slow too. So she was never going to around to not hearing them about her. Truth was, she was getting sick and tired of it. It drove her crazy. She was a normal person who isn't good in math and has a attention disability. But that didn't make her less any different from other people.

"So, i'm so nervous for the ACT'S." Gabriella spoke up trying to change the subject.

"Aren't they like kind of a report card for college or something like that?" Betsy questioned her.

Her eyes grew wide in shock. "You don't know what that is?"

"I guess not."

She couldn't believe her friend didn't know what the ACT'S were. Every high school student should be aware of the ACT'S. They were tests that were the key to the future. If you didn't pass, you would not end up going to a good college. "They are college entrance exams. You have to get a 21 in order to go to a 4 year university,"

"Oh, right," Betsy looked flushed with embarrassment. "Oh, right, I knew that."

"Wow." Was all Gabriella could say.

The bus finally reached into a halt. Gabriella picked up her things and stepped off the bus. "I'll text you on the deets. Okay?."

"Kay" Betsy replied as the two girls went into their own respective houses.

Gabriella opened the front door, walked inside and slammed the door behind her. She walked into the kitchen and threw the keys on the kitchen counter. "Dad!" She shouted.

A few moments later, Mr. Montez walked into the kitchen to see what was up with his 16 year old daughter. "What do you need, this time?."

"Can I go to the mall with Troy and Betsy?. She asked.

Mr. Montez's lips formed into a smile. "Yes. It's nice to see you go out with friends. You should go hang out with your guy friend more often."

"Yeah, I know and I will. I'll be leaving in an hour" Gabriella reassured her father before running out of the kitchen and running up the stairs.

She ran into her room and shut the door. Gabriella sat on her bed to text Betsy to tell her what time she had to be in the house.

30 minutes later, the bell rang. She shot up from her bed excitedly, running into the bathroom to check on her hair and makeup before trudging down the stairs to answer the door.

She unlocked the door only to find Betsy standing in the front porch. Disappointment came over her.

"When is he coming?." Betsy asked stepping inside the house as Gabriella slammed the door shut and locked it.

She checked her cell phone and it read three thirty. "He should be coming any time now. I gotta go to my room and get my purse. You can watch TV while you wait." She ran up the stairs, proceeding to get her stuff than running back down to find her friend's face glued to an episode Jersey Shore.

She breathed heavily as sh made her way to the couch. "I can't wait for season 6. I'm so sad the show's gonna be over"

"What?. Betsy asked in astonishment."It's ending, why?."

Gabriella shrugged. "Maybe cause Snooki gave birth to her baby already and the cast is going to different directions in life. Whatever the cause might be. I'm sad it's over."

"Yeah, me too."

The girls commented and laughed as they watched the episode of Jersey Shore. When it was done,it was about four o' clock.

Hmm, he should be here by now. Gabriella thought to herself wondering why the heck it's taking him so long.

Gabriella's parents entered the living room surprised to find the two girls without Troy sitting in the living room couch.

"I thought you were leaving by now." Gabriella's mother said.

"I thought so too. But I guess he's late." She replied rolling her eyes.

"Do you guys want me to fix you some snacks while you wait for him?." Mrs. Montez questioned.

"Sure!" Gabriella nodded. A snack sure sounded good.

10 minutes later, Mrs. Montez bought out a plate of 10 chicken wings with two cans of soda and set it on the coffee table. "Don't make a mess. Don't forget to leave some for Troy when he comes over."

"Mom, this is not a snack," Gabriella exclaimed. "More like a meal."

"It's your favorite. That's why I made it." Mrs. Montez explained before reaching into her pocket and fished out twenty five bucks than she handed it to her daughter.

"Thank you Mom." She grinned thinking of what to buy with only limited money.

"Your welcome," She smiled before giving a stern look. "Spend it wisely. "

"Yeah, okay, sure." Gabriella responded sarcastically knowing she was gonna buy lots of rings from Forever 21.

Mrs. Montez shook her head and walked out of the living room knowing her daughter was going to spend it on rings once again.

The girls turned their attention on the food and drinks and began eating and drinking. An hour later, the girls laid on the couch bored as ever. The clock reached five thirty. Gabriella felt a wave of depression, sadness and rejection hit over her.

"Betsy"

"Yeah?"

"I think he stood us up." Gabriella forced the words out of her. She knew Troy would never hang or like a dumb girl. It was all too good to be true.

"Yeah, I think so too," Betsy replied before asking. "Do you think it's because that I came along?."

Gabriella shook her head. "No. I don't think so.. I'm gonna get my mom to take us to the mall."

"Okay." Betsy nodded her head.

She stood up from the couch and stepped into the kitchen where her parents were sitting on the kitchen table eating dinner and whispering to each other

She stepped in front of her mom and spoke. "Mom"

"Can you take us to the mall?."

Mrs. Montez gave us a sad smile knowing what happened. "After, i'm done eating dinner."

"Mom!"

"Yes, sweetie?."

"I'm never going to talk to Troy ever again. He's an asshole." Gabriella's voice cracked, letting the tears fall from her eyes.

"Don't ever hang out with that boy ever again. He's a jerk, you hear me?." Mrs. Montez reached her daughter for a hug.

"Nobody ever likes me because i'm retarded. No wonder he stood me up" Gabriella as she finished crying and wiping her tears. She ran out of the living room and put on a pretend happy face for her friend. Just when she thought things were getting better. Things were taking a turn for the worst.

**A/N: Uh Oh. Troy stood up Gabriella and Betsy. What do you think the reason is?. Did you catch anything in this chapter. If so, let me know by reviewing. **


	10. Reality Sucks

**Love and Acceptence**

**A/N To start of this authors note, I would like to apologize for notupdating in a long. I'm pretty sure you've forgotten about me. The mainreason why I haven't updated is because of procrastination. There's noexcuse for that. My new years resolution is to update more , I will make not break this resolution. Let's cross reason why I haven't updated is because I got a virus on christmasin my laptop which definitely put a damper on my favorite holiday. LOL. But that's okay. I had to do a system restore and that deleted all my files,programs and documents. I had already written a part of this chapter a few months back and kept writing a bit throughout the past few months.I am so upset and I knew I should have done a backup for my documents but I didn't. It definitely taught me a lesson. Hopefully, you backup your files so the same thing won't happen to you. The materialthat I wrote I was so proud of was deleted so the rewritten chapter won't be probably as good as the original one so bare with me!.**

4:30

Gabriella stared at the numbers in her clock. She wished time would go backwards so she wouldn't have to get up in30 minutes to get ready for school. It had been three days since Troy stood her up. She knew it would happen. Everytime, she attached herself to someone, she always wound up getting hurt. At 16, she already knew her destiny in life. Her life was to be filled with sadness and loneliness. Just the thought of it had her eyes well up in tears. She wished she could be happy. How could she be happy if she didn't feel accepted or belonged anywhere?. She was worthless, stupid,retarded,dumb, short and ugly. Nobody would like her. A wave of depression ran through Gabriella. The only thing that could give her an ounce of happiness was hiding in the cabinets in her bathroom. Gabriella didn't have to get up in another 30 minutes so she had time to kill. She couldn't sleep well for the past 3 days dreading monday morning have to face Troy. She hated confrontation. If anything, she was a passive girl. She wished she could be assertive. She removed Troy from her mind and focused on the knife that would soon await her. She pushed the covers off the bed, her feet feeling the coldness of the wooden floor. She shivered as she crossed her arms. It was always cold in the mornings. She made her way over to the bathroom, she flicked on the lights, blinding her eyes. She rubbed it making her eyes adjust to the brightness of the room. When her vision became clearer, she took a look at herself. She was grossed at what she saw every morning when she took a look at herself. Frizzy, puffy hair, dry cracked lips and dark circles under her eyes. No wonder no guy would ever ask her out. She was ugly. She pushed her thoughts of physical appearance away when her eyes landed on the cabinet. She opened it, taking the cold, metal and silver object in her hands

She grinned at the thought of the silver metal touching her soft skin causing a sensation of pain wavering throughout her arm. Gabriella didn't think she was crazy. She was showing gratification of her own shame to her own body by self-mutilating herself. She closed the cabinet door. Gabriella slowly let her fingers run through the metal enjoying the feeling before slashing against her skin creating a long red line. She slashed her arms three times more times. She looked at her arm that was filled with 4 long red lines that caused her so much pain. But she liked it, in fact, she loved it. Gabriella leaned against her wall deep in though trying to review everything that was going in her life. She pushed away the thoughts and made up scenes in her head, removing reality from her mind completely. She dreamt that her life was a bit more better. She would be well liked,beautiful, outgoing and smart. Even than, she would dream a different set of problems because she knew that no life was ever perfect. She created a perfect character with the perfect life. But her perfect life had some problems. But in the end, her character would go through the obstacles and live a happy life. She opened her eyes, sighing. She wished she could be happy. But no matter who she met and what she did, she knew in her heart, she would never achieve happiness for she's destined to live a life full of sadness and loneliness.

Gabriella gave a quick glance at the bathroom's clock. She groaned as the clock reached to 5:00. She slowly rose up from the floor,removed her clothes, turned the faucet on and slid herself into the shower. She let her fingers run through the drops of water that was falling to the ground. The hotness of the water gave her cuts an intense pain. But Gabriella kind of enjoyed the pain. It represented her.

When she finished her shower, closed the faucet, grabbed the towel and wrapped it around her shivering cold body. She stepped out of the shower, a wave of cold air smacked her body and shivered. Once again, she met herself in the mirror. She looked so ugly without makeup. She blew dry her hair, put a curling mousse to remove the frizz and make them look less puffy. She did her usual everyday makeup routine which consists brown eyeshadow,eyeliner on top and bottem tightlines, foundation, pressing powder to set foundation, light pink blush and coral pink lip gloss. She took last look in the mirror before going to her bedroom to choose an outfit. She decided to wear a black hoodie, black sweatpants and black boots. She took a few pieces of her hair to the front of her shoulders and fluffed it She wished she looked like the popular girls in the school. It took makeup and hair products to look good and feel a bit of confience. She took a deep breath and grabbed her backpack. "I guess i'm ready for another lonely day." She whispered to herself.

She scurried out of the bedroom and went into the kitchen which was filled with aroma and the sound of sizzling pancakes being cooked in a pan. She ate her breakfast and was out the door within 30 minutes.

* * *

The school bus came to a halt, Gabriella metally slapped herself and felt butterflies in her stomach. Today was the day that she knew that Troy was going to apologize to her. She stepped off the bus and walked inside the school. The hallway was filled with kids chattering, walking and laughing. Oh how Gabriella envied the happiness of others. She wished she could talk, laugh and walk with a friend without a care in the world. But in her case, that was never going to happen. She slowly walked up the hallway and spotted her friend Sharpay.

She walked up to her and greeted. "Hey Shar!"

The blonde girl stopped admiring herself in the mirror and turned her to her little friend. "Sooo, how was the mall Friday?."

Gabriella's eyes looked down at the floor, avoiding her friend's eyes. "He stood me up."

"What?." Sharpay shoved a book into her locker, removing the things from her backpack. "I'm going to kill that boy!. How could he fucking do that a beautiful and sweet girl?."

Gabriella rolled her eyes. She knew that people sugarcoated the truth and lie to her face. It was completely bullshit especially when they tell her that she's smart. "I wish!"

"Honey, you don't believe it." Sharpay pulled a mini mirror out of her locker and shoved it in front of her face. "I wish to have those long beautiful curls, smile and your eyes. I could just eat you up."

Gabriella grabbed the mirror and placed it on the shelf in her locker. "It's all an allusion. Makeup and hair products. Hello?."

Sharpay gave her smile. "Well makeup and hair product or not.. I still think you are a beautiful girl in and out. I'm happy to have known the real you, Gariella Marie Montez. All these damn people should have been ashamed of themselves of not getting to know. Hell, Im mad at myself for not talking to you sooner. But I eventually did and i'm happy as hell that I got to know you. You are a beautiful, smart, sweet, innocent girl. People don't know that. But I do know that and well their missing out on a great girl especially Troy who don't deserve a time out of your damn day."

Gabriella almost cried. It was honestly the most nicest and most beautiful things that anyone had ever sad that about her. "That is one of the nicest things people had ever said that to me."

Sharpay grinned and slammed her locker. "Now, what are friends for?. Let's go find that ugly piece of of shit and give him a piece of my mind."

The blonde girl grabbed her hand as Gabriella protested, "Uhh, I don't think that's a good idea."

It took a minute for the girls to find Troy until they found him standing nearby his locker laughing and talking with his friends.

Sharpay tapped him in the shoulder, folded his arms and gave a stern look. Troy turned around and saw the two girls. His smile faded into a remorse look on his face. "I have to explain"

"Zip it," The blonde snapped. "I don't wanna fucking hear it. I want to start off saying that your full of shit. You may think you got the looks, athletic ability and the body. But don't think just for one minute that your a good guy with a heart. No!. Your the complete opposite of that. You stood up a sweet girl. How could you do that to a girl. Especially a fragile one. You knew who you were gonna go out with. Your fucking worthless. You don't deserve any girl. The girls who are smitten with you are a bunch of complete easy sluts who don't give a shit about you but only want you for your looks and popularity not for you. You are the most arrogant, shitty, worthless and ugly piece of shit no one fucking wants. You toy around people's hearts and don't give a fucking shit about them. For that, karma will come and get you. You will grow old to be a ugly, bald and a fat guy who sits home all day that woman will ever go out with. Think about the damage that you done that will always be right behind you. But just remember, if you do that one more time to anybody in this school. I will tear your reputation to pieces and it's bye bye Troy." Sharpay's yelled, her face getting red and her voice getting louder by the minute. She was on a roll.

Gabriella's mouth fell open as she found the courage to look up at Troy who looked stunned and speechless. His friends behind him were shouting out "Burned!."

It took a few seconds before Troy regained his composure and comprehended as to what had been just said to him. Instead of yelling at the blonde girl to get the last word, he calmly said. "Gabriella, may I speak to you," Troy's eyes darted to the blonde girl. "Alone!."

"Alright, but mark my words, I can tear you down before school ends today." She turned around and stalked off down the hallway. Her loud clicks could be hear throughout the whole hallway. The boys whistled and glanced at her as she passed by. Troy's friends patted his shoulders and waved goodbyes leaving the two completely alone.

"Man, that girl scares me." Troy tried to joke hoping to get a laugh out from Gabriella. However, she did not laugh or giggle. She stayed silent waiting for him to explain and apolgize.

"Alright um," Troy scratched his neck trying to think of a way to explain as to why he didn't show up to her house that friday night. "I kind of got in trouble, my dad took my phone away and forbidded to leave the house and to not make any calls and emails. I tried sneaking out but my dad caught me. If it weren't for that. I would defnitely be out at the mall hanging out with you. But ya know how parents are."

"Apology accepted." Gabriella smiled. People make mistakes. She knew Troy didn't mean any harm.

Troy's lips formed into a smile. "So we're cool?."

Gabriella nodded her head. "We're cool."

"Good," Troy grinned and gave her a hug "I'd love to stay and catch up with you. But I promised my dad I would go meet him in the gym for a important discussion about the upcoming basketball team.

Before, Gabriella could respond, he quickly scurried off. She sighed, put on her headphones to listen to her music on her ipod and went over to the vending machines to go pick up a snack before jetting to class. She pulled out a five doller bill. Not noticing, a doller bill fall out of her pockets. She put the doller bill into the machine and picked a snack. A brown skinned girl wearing a headband, a burgandy blazer, black pants and shirt. Topping the outfit with a pair of black heels. The girl was from her english class who sat in front of her. The girl was the smartest girl in the entire school. She won the school's decathlon team for three years straight and won spelling bees each year since the first grade. She was top of the entire junior class. The brown skinned girl tapped her in the shoulder and Gabriella turned to face her.

The girl named Taylor Mckessie said something to her which Gabriella made out to be. "Do you want twenty dollars?."

At first, Gabriella was taken back abit before turning the volume a bit lower and mumbled. "Sure" Not quite knowing why Taylor wanted to give her money. Maybe, it was an offering to start a friendship or so she hoped.

"No, you dropped your twenty dollars." Taylor handed the doller bill. Gabriella flushed with embarrassment. "Thank You."

Taylor turned to her friend and whispered loudly. "She's slow!." Her friend in response laughed than the two girls went back to what they were doing.

Gabriella grew even more humiliated and sad. It ruined her good mood. She didn't understand why people thought she was dumb and slow. All she knew was that people knew that she didn't know how to do multiplication,subtraction,division and adding. In her defense, Gabriella remembered the easiest ones but not the harder ones. Math wasn't her best subject. She was a special ed student so she couldn't do nothing about it. Gabriella shoved the money into her pockets, grabbed the snack and put in her bag and pulled out her headphones and shoved her ipod into her bag as well. Embarrassed and sad, she went to her first period class in a horrible mood.

When homeroom period ended, the whole incident from this morning and the Troy situation had completely took over her mind that she forgot she had to read her book report in front of the entire class for English.

Gabriella stopped in her tracks in the hallway. She had completely forgotten and she didn't prepare it given that she was so distraught from Friday's situation that she forgotten about the book report that was supposed to be presented for English. She was screwed and Gabriella was scared out of her mind. There was one thing Gabriella hated out of all the things she hated was speaking and standing in front of the entire class. Oh, how she dreaded it. In her heart, she knew she was going to screw up and make a fool out of herself, her heart raced and butterflied flew in her stomach and she felt like throwing up. She gulped and made her way to the class. She spotted Taylor and was reminded of the incident this morning. She was so embarrassed, she didn't even want to make eye contact. She sat down in her seat, her head resting on the desk wishing that she could be anywhere doing anything than reading her report in front of the class. The bell rang and Gabriella mentally kept hitting her head on the desk.

"Okay, class, it's time to read your reports," Mrs. Waters announced. "Who wants to go first?."

Of course, Taylor Mckessie, the smartest girl in the entire school and raised her . Waters smiled brightly. "Taylor, your up. Make us proud!." Taylor was every teachers pet. All the teachers loved her and Taylor loved the attention and love she received from them.

Taylor stood up from her seat and made her way up the class. "Ladies and gentlemen, I present you my book report of "Water For Chocalate." The girl proudly joked, read and made facts on the story through her way to the report as Gabriella envied her wishing she could be the smart and proud girl standing talking in front of the class."

Once finished, Mrs. Coolers clapped wildly and cried out. "Thank You Taylor. That was an amazing, esquiste report. Your report was fully detailed, filled out with quotes and the sentences were way beyond your age that no 16 year old could state. Of course, you did use big words that no one knows, not even I. But of course, your a genius in every way."

Gabriella rolled her eyes. She was sick and tired of teachers fangirling over her classmate. Sure, she got the brains. But that didn't mean she should be treated differently.

Mrs. Coolers stood up and pointed to Taylor. "This is an example of an amazing student right here. Class, I wish that you look up to her and study and work hard like her. You can be like her, if you weren't procrastinating. You all could be standing right here giving an report just like her if you give in all the work that you put into it. Half of you don't even make an effort and you know who you are and for those are making an effort, I applaud you. All i'm trying to say is due to the horrible grades of your last report, i'm hoping that this report will be an even better one than the last time."

She sat down and cleared her throat. "That is all, you may sit down, Taylor."

Taylor who looked slightly embarrassed but forced out a proud smile. "Thank you, Mrs. Coolers. I'm honered to hear you say that." She walked over to her seat and whispered to her friend. "That was embarrassing but I got to admit that it felt pretty cool."

Before her friend could even respond. Mrs. Coolers spoke up. "Who wants to go next?."

The class pretended to look at their reports and study it hoping that they wouldn't go next. Mrs. Coolers warned that if no one volunteer than she would pick a student out of her roaster.

A brave boy raised his hand and spoke. "I'd like to go next."

Mrs. Coolers smiled and gestured him to go up in front of the class. One student after another volunteered. It was exactly five minutes before the bell rang and Gabriella gave a sigh in relief. She was good at least for today.

"Alright, five minutes before class is done. But I want one more student to go next. If no one volunteers than I will gladly pick a student at random."

The class stayed silent, no one had the courage to go up there. "No one wants to go, oh well my, random picking will begin." She stated giving a scan in the class.

Gabriella quickly put her head and read her paper over and over again. Taylor whispered to her friend. "Watch it be Gabriella."

She felt kind of offended even though, it was no insult but she felt offended. A few seconds later, Mrs. Coolers said something that would shreded her into tiny pieces. Something she dreaded. "Gabriella, I choose you."

She felt the class's eyes burn her as she slowly picked up her head and shook her head.

"You have no choice. C'mon, it will be all over before you know it. I will not let the class go if you don't proceed." Mrs. Coolers warned her.

"We're screwed." A voice whispered.

"I know, she's so quiet, she won't be able to go up. She better go up or else." Another voice whispered.

Sighing, she stood up and slowly made her way over to front of the class. She reminded herself that she will be committing suicide after high school ends to get the nerves out of her. She told herself to just wing it. She opened her mouth and read her paper in a low voice. She was so scared out of her mind that she felt her eyes water.

_Oh no. Fuck my life. This cannot be happening. At least not now._ She thought to herself.

"Speak up, I can't hear you!." She urged her. "Speak slower, I can't understand you. I know your nervous but you'll do good!."

She continued to read and speak in a bit of a loud voice. The tears kept watering and once she was finished. The tears welled down her cheeks. She sniffled.

"Oh dear" Mrs. Waters mumbled under her breath.

Gabriella literally felt the urge to commit suicide. She was too shocked over what had just happened. It was not like her to cry over reading a report. She guessed that Taylor's words that she whispered before reading her report took an emotional toll on her. She blamed Taylor.

"You did a good job," Mrs. Waters tried to say cheerfully. "You just needed to speak louder and slower. That was all there is to it." She went over to her desk and picked up a box of tissues and offered it.

Gabriella shook her head wanting to run away and hide away from the world. She wished that it wouldn't have happened. Gabriella just cried while reading her report. No one knew her reasons. Some people thought she cried over the teacher urging her to speak louder or others guessed that she was so scared that she cried. But Gabriella, herself didn't know the answer to the mystery of her crying while reading her report. She went over to her desk and collected her things. Gabriella just sat there and cried while no one said a word.

She was a failure. She failed at everything. She couldn't even get a job for goodness sake and didn't pass 5 job interviews these past few months. She sucked at math, she couldn't speak well and she wasn't a good student in her schoolwork. She barely got A's. She only got B's. She wished she would get a job so she could prove to everyone that she wasn't dumb and that she could do the same thing as everyone else and most importantly function very well. She cried even more at the thought of being a failure. Things weren't going to get better. She was basically a stain on a shirt that could never be removed. It would stay there making people frustrated and even sad. Things would never get better. No matter how hard she tried in improving her life. She knew her life was going to be filled with sadness and loneliness. The thought of that also made her cry even harder.

Taylor turned around in her seat and smiled. "You did great!."

_Bullshit_. She thought to herself.

The bell rang and Gabriella wanted nothing more than to run away from school and hide. In fact, that was her plan for today. She was too embarrassed, sad and angry to continue her classes. She stood up and walked away from her class. She quickly scurried to the bathroom, ran to an empty stall, went inside of it and locked herself. She sat next to the toliet and cried her little heart out. She felt as if her heart broke into a million pieces. She wished that Troy would be standing next to her comforting her. But at the same time, she didn't. Gabriella didn't want to see the state that Gabriella was currently in. She grew angry at herself for even crying in class today.

"You are a worthless piece of shit, no one wants you, they all think your a failure who will never mount to anything. Your ugly, your stupid, your retarded, your dumb and your can never do anything right, Gabriella." She whispered to herself. The bell rang and the girls scurried out leaving the bathroom.

She opened her bag and pulled out the only thing that could make her feel better. The only thing that could make her happy and forget everything. The only thing that would show shame over the incident today by doing something that she wasn't supposed to but did it anyway. A razor. She opened her left sleeve since the right arm had 3 cuts and an extra 4 from the day before. She let the cold silver metal touch her skin creating a long red line. Anger burst into her so she thrust the razor even harder creating a deeper line. An ounce of pain wavered through Gabriella. Something that she was already feeling mentally in her mind. She did it another time. But the feeling of wanting the feeling of the cold metal of ripping her skin was being craved. She did and did it. Creating 4 long red deep lines. Blood oozed out of the arm. She kind of panicked and grabbed a tissue paper and pressed against it. She waited for 10 minutes before it stopped. She removed the tissue paper, threw it into the toliet and flushed it. She closed her eyes, leaning against the wall, the horrible event that played over and over again in her matter how hard she fought for the memory to put away. It still kept playing over and over. It was like a broken record that kept repeating and repeating the song over and over again. She grabbed her notebook out of the bag and wrote another original poem for the next 30 minutes. Thinking, she can 't remember the last time she was happy. A light bulb appeared above her head. She remembered being happy the summer before 9th grade and than once high school happy, carefree feeling went away for good. Until than, happiness was never regained.

**No matter how hard I try, I look for you**

**But your nowhere to be found**

**I know your hidden somewhere**

**But your too stubborn to be found.**

**You are such a distinctive memory**

**I wish to find again**

**I know your hiding**

**Somewhere hidden in your cruel dark world**

**I do not know if the light will ever strike again**

**But I hope someday I will find you again**

Gabriella reread her poem over and over. The "You" was a symbol of her happiness that was to never be found again. She frowned,displeased with her work and slammed the notebook angrily. She was frustrated. Gabriella enjoyed writing. But she was never good at it. But she wrote because it made her feel good. At one time, she thought she was good. After her cousin found her poems and acted as if they were not that great. She lost faith in her writing but yet she still kept writing for the thrill of it. Maybe, it was the only thing she was good at. But she was nowhere good as other people in her school. Maybe Taylor would make her crappy poem even better. She sighed and put in her backpack. The bell rang. Gabriella groaned as she stood up. She opened the stall and went over to the mirror. Her makeup was a complete mess. She pulled out some makeup remover and removed her makeup than redid it. The bell rang once she was finished. She fiddled her backpack as she ran out of the bathroom. But unfortunately, a security guard stopped her. "Your late. Unfortunately, I will have to write you up and I will take you to your class.

The security guard finished writing on his clipboard and walked her to her class. He threw the door open and Gabriella followed him. Students were whispering and looking at her. The incident replayed in her mind and Gabriella almost threw herself against the wall becoming angry with herself. It was too much to bare.

Mr. C nodded and whispered something to him and the security guard whispered. "Damn, she's dumb."

"I know!."

Gabriella wanted the day to be over with so she can hide in her bed and forget this day ever happened. The security guard walked away and left the classroom.

She walked to her seat besides Sharpay who whispered. "Why weren't you in 2nd period?."

"Office" She quickly thought up an excuse.

Sharpay nodded. "Oh."

She sat back in her seat and tried to listen and watch the teacher demostrate a math problem. But Gabriella was too emotionally unstable to even pay attention to the class nor even write down notes.

Her aid walked over to her and whispered. "Why aren't you writing notes?."

Gabriella grew irritated. "I'm sorry." She mumbled and pulled out her notebook and scurried the notes but her mind was not there.

Once finished, she leaned back and sighed. She remembered she had a case manager who is controlling her every move and monitoring her as well. She was already caught in the act of ditching. Her life completely sucked. Her school life was controlled by someone. She was watched and fussed over by homework and schoolwork. This was reality. The reality that she wished would never exist. Reality sucks.

* * *

**A/N This chapter was so hard to write. I couldn't bare what i was making Gabriella going through. But in every story, there has to obstacles to run through and conflicts that needed to be solved. As an author, it's essential to have that in every story you write. But i feel so bad for Gabriella?. Any thoughts on the chapter?. What do you think of the characters in the chapter?. What do you think is going to happen to next?. I want to know. Before i end this A/N. I wish to wish everyone a happy News Years don't drink and party hard. You'll pay for it in the morning. Stay safe everyone!. :)**

**Love **

**7blackberry2pinkstar**


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